Solana RPC endpoints: free public URLs and private API-key providers by latency
HTTP round-trip latency for getSlot against every free, no-key public Solana RPC endpoint (probed every 60 seconds) and, under the Access selector (Private), against the API-key endpoints of Alchemy, Chainstack, GetBlock and QuickNode (every 120 seconds), from 3 regions. The two cohorts are ranked separately, never against each other.
TL;DR. As of , Solana Labs has the lowest median latency of the 4 free public Solana RPC endpoints measured, 26 ms (p50, 24h, 3 regions). Source: OpenChainBench, https://openchainbench.com/benchmarks/solana-rpc. 4 public endpoints, no key: api.mainnet-beta.solana.com, public.rpc.solanavibestation.com, solana-rpc.publicnode.com, solana.leorpc.com. Full URLs with their 24h median are listed below; Alchemy, Chainstack, GetBlock, QuickNode (private, API key) are ranked apart under the Private tab.
Companion page
Comparing free RPC endpoints across every chain we measure? Open the cross-chain RPC matrix →
Solana is the first non-EVM member of the RPC latency cluster, and the chain where the free-RPC question is asked most and answered worst: most "best Solana RPC" roundups list endpoints that key-gated or died years ago. This page probes the 4 endpoints that actually answer keyless today, including the Solana Labs official api.mainnet-beta.solana.com that every tutorial pastes, with the same rules as the 20 EVM chains in the cluster: one identical probe (getSlot at the processed commitment) every 60 seconds from us-east, eu-west and Singapore, stale-slot detection against the cross-provider tip, and result classification so a fast error never ranks as a fast answer. The candidates that failed the keyless audit are listed with their exact refusals: dRPC moved Solana to paid tiers, Ankr returns 403 without a key, OnFinality's shared public quota is permanently exhausted.
Methodology
Solana: 4 free public RPC endpoints answering `getSlot` every 60 seconds from us-east, eu-west and Singapore, ranked by 24h median. Solana Labs leads at 26 ms. The same page carries the private cohort (API key), Alchemy, Chainstack, GetBlock and QuickNode on their keyed Solana endpoints every 120 seconds: switch the Access selector; QuickNode leads it at 4 ms. We measure round-trip latency of a single identical JSON-RPC call (getSlot at the processed commitment) against every no-key public Solana endpoint that sustains continuous probing, 4 providers, every 60 seconds, from us-east, eu-west and Singapore. Responses are classified (ok / http_err / jsonrpc_err / stale / timeout) with staleness measured in slots against the cross-provider tip. The archive-depth audit run on EVM chains has no keyless Solana equivalent and is not performed. The cross-chain view lives on the parent rpc-capabilities benchmark; this page is the Solana-scoped answer with per-region breakdowns as a first-class dimension.
Results: 4 free public Solana RPC endpoints ranked by p50 latency (24h, 3 regions)
| № | Providers | p50 | p90 | p99 | Success |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Solana Labs | 26 ms | 43 ms | 214 ms | 100.00% |
| 2 | Solana Vibe Station | 70 ms | 94 ms | 227 ms | 100.00% |
| 3 | PublicNode | 80 ms | 104 ms | 218 ms | 97.45% |
| 4 | LeoRPC | 401 ms | 2.58 s | 4.73 s | 99.91% |
Public Solana RPC endpoints measured
The 4 no-key endpoints answering our probes today, with their current 24h median. Paste one into a wallet or a client as is: no signup, no key. Alchemy, Chainstack, GetBlock and QuickNode, private endpoints that need an API key, are ranked separately under the Private tab; keyed URLs are never listed.
Solana Labshttps://api.mainnet-beta.solana.com26 ms100.0%
Solana Vibe Stationhttps://public.rpc.solanavibestation.com70 ms100.0%
PublicNodehttps://solana-rpc.publicnode.com80 ms97.5%
LeoRPChttps://solana.leorpc.com/?api_key=FREE401 ms99.9%
Median round-trip and success rate over the last 24 hours across the probe regions; the ranked table above carries p90, p99 and the per-region split.
Not listed on Solana
- dRPC: Solana moved to paid tiers, no keyless endpoint
- Ankr: returns 403 without an API key
- OnFinality: shared public quota permanently exhausted
- Helius: requires an API key; no key held yet, so it is not in the private cohort either
Frequently asked
Which Solana RPCs work without an API key?
5 endpoints are probed on this chain; each is listed with its URL, 24h median and success rate in the endpoints table on this page, and the list changes as providers come and go.
Is api.mainnet-beta.solana.com good enough for production?
For development, demos and light read workloads, yes: Solana Labs documents roughly 100 requests per 10 seconds per IP. For production trading, indexing or anything latency-sensitive, dedicated providers exist for a reason; this page measures the free tier so you know exactly what the default gets you before you decide.
Why is there no archive-depth column like the EVM pages?
The EVM cluster probes eth_getBalance at historical block heights to expose which free endpoints serve archive state. Public Solana endpoints expose no comparable keyless historical-state query, so the audit is disclosed as not applicable rather than approximated.
Which Solana RPC provider is fastest with an API key?
Per the live data: QuickNode at 4 ms (getSlot p50 over 24h, averaged across us-east, eu-west and Singapore); Alchemy measures 11 ms, Chainstack 7 ms and QuickNode 4 ms; GetBlock measures 8 ms. On the free cohort Solana Labs leads at 26 ms, measured on the same call from the same three regions; the two cohorts are never ranked in one table (shared gateways at 60 s against metered endpoints at 120 s). Switch the Access selector to Private for the region tabs and the p99 column; plan tiers are disclosed in the methodology.
Source code github.com/ChainBench/OpenChainBench/tree/main/harnesses/rpc-capabilities