Provider pricing¶
RPC Plane ships a machine-readable pricing database at pricing.rpcplane.dev. The binary fetches it on startup (when cost_aware = true) and uses it to score providers by effective cost per method.
This page documents the current rates, what the numbers mean, and how the cost-aware router uses them.
Why method-level pricing matters¶
Providers don't charge a flat rate per request. A getAccountInfo call and a getBlock call can differ by 10× in cost on the same plan. The methods that drive your bill are usually a small subset — typically history reads (getBlock, getTransaction, getSignaturesForAddress) and DAS queries (getAsset*, searchAssets).
RPC Plane reads the method name from every proxied request and applies the correct per-method weight when computing the provider's cost efficiency score.
Rates at a glance¶
All rates are pay-as-you-go / overage rates — the per-call cost once an included monthly quota is exhausted. Subscription tier sizes are not modeled here.
| Provider | Billing model | Standard call ($/M) | getBlock ($/M) |
DAS ($/M) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Helius | Credits, $5/M | $5.00 | $50.00 (10×) | $50.00 (10×) |
| QuickNode | Credits, $0.50/M | $15.00 | $15.00 (no premium) | $30.00 (2×) |
| Triton One | Metered (requests + bandwidth) | $10.00 + BW | $10.00 + BW | $50.00 + BW |
| Alchemy | Compute units, $0.45/M CU | $4.50 | $18.00 (4×) | — |
| Chainstack | Request units, $5/M | $5.00 | $10.00 (archive 2×) | — |
Standard call reference = getAccountInfo. DAS = Metaplex Digital Asset Standard (getAsset, getAssetsByOwner, searchAssets, etc.). BW = $0.08/GB response bandwidth (Triton only).
Prices last updated 2026-05-14. Source: pricing.rpcplane.dev.
Helius¶
Model: credits — $5.00 per million credits (all paid tiers)
| Method category | Credits per call | Effective $/M calls |
|---|---|---|
| Standard (getAccountInfo, getBalance, sendTransaction, …) | 1 | $5.00 |
| Archival reads (getBlock, getTransaction, getSignaturesForAddress, …) | 10 | $50.00 |
| DAS / Metaplex (getAsset, getAssetsByOwner, searchAssets, …) | 10 | $50.00 |
| getProgramAccounts | 10 | $50.00 |
Helius charges uniformly for all archival and DAS methods. Standard account/state reads are cheap; anything that touches history or the asset index is 10×.
Sources: helius.dev/pricing
QuickNode¶
Model: API credits — $0.50 per million credits (Business tier; Build tier is $0.62/M)
| Method category | Credits per call | Effective $/M calls |
|---|---|---|
| All standard Solana methods (incl. getBlock, getTransaction) | 30 | $15.00 |
| Advanced API — getAsset* | 60 | $30.00 |
| Large scans — getLargestAccounts, getSupply, getTokenLargestAccounts | 120 | $60.00 |
Notable: QuickNode does not charge a premium for history reads. getBlock costs the same as getAccountInfo. The only differentiation is DAS/advanced (2×) and large scans (4×).
Sources: quicknode.com/pricing · api-credits/solana
Triton One¶
Model: metered — per request plus response bandwidth ($0.08/GB)
Triton bills two components on every call. The bandwidth charge is minor for small responses but significant for history calls with large payloads.
| Method category | $/M calls | Typical response size | Bandwidth $/M calls | Total $/M |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Standard RPC (getAccountInfo, getBalance, getSlot, …) | $10 | ~0.5 KB | ~$0.04 | ~$10 |
| History / ledger (getBlock, getTransaction, getSignaturesForAddress) | $10 | ~500 KB (getBlock) | ~$40 | ~$50 |
| Indexed accounts (getProgramAccounts, getTokenAccountsByOwner) | $10 | varies | varies | $10+ |
| DAS / Metaplex (getAsset*, searchAssets) | $50 | ~2 KB | ~$0.16 | ~$50 |
The getBlock bandwidth estimate assumes ~500 KB average block payload (compressed). Actual size varies by block fullness. The binary reads Content-Length from the raw response to meter bandwidth accurately.
Sources: triton.one/pricing
Alchemy¶
Model: compute units (CU) — $0.45 per million CU (rate drops to $0.40/M beyond 300M CU/month)
Warning
The CU weights below were inferred from Alchemy's general compute-units docs page. The Solana-specific CU table was unavailable at time of writing. Verify at alchemy.com/docs/reference/compute-units before relying on these for cost modeling.
| Method | CU per call | Effective $/M calls |
|---|---|---|
| getAccountInfo, getBalance, getTokenAccountsByOwner | 10 | $4.50 |
| sendTransaction, simulateTransaction, getProgramAccounts, getSlot | 20 | $9.00 |
| getTransaction, getBlock, getSignaturesForAddress | 40 | $18.00 |
gRPC streaming is billed at $80/TB ($0.08/GB). The PAYG plan starts at 300 RPS.
Sources: alchemy.com/pricing · compute-units docs
Chainstack¶
Model: request units (RU) — $5.00 per million RU (Enterprise tier; Developer tier is $20/M)
| Node type | RU per call | Effective $/M calls |
|---|---|---|
| Standard / global node | 1 | $5.00 |
| Archive node | 2 | $10.00 |
No Solana-specific per-method weighting is publicly documented. The only differentiation is archive vs. non-archive routing. History calls (getBlock, getTransaction) cost 2 RU when routed through an archive node.
Sources: chainstack.com/pricing
Providers without per-method pricing¶
These providers were checked but are not in the pricing database because per-method cost data isn't publicly available. You can still use them with RPC Plane — cost-aware routing simply won't apply.
| Provider | Notes |
|---|---|
| GetBlock | CU model, $0.41/M CU (Pro) — but CU weights per Solana method not documented |
| Ankr | Flat $50/M all Solana requests, no method differentiation |
| Shyft | Flat-rate RPS subscriptions; no per-call metering on current plans |
Cost calculator¶
Estimate your monthly provider spend at pricing.rpcplane.dev/calculator.
Enter your expected monthly call volumes by method type and the calculator shows the effective cost per provider side-by-side.