Crypto RPC / node providers compared
Free-tier limits, chain coverage and WebSocket support for the RPC/node infrastructure providers wallets, exchanges and dApps use to talk to blockchains. Free-tier limits and unit systems differ materially between providers (compute units vs. credits vs. requests-per-second) and change without notice — always confirm against the provider's own current pricing page before relying on a figure.
Last verified: · Source: Alchemy — Pricing (retrieved )
| Provider | Free-tier limit | Chains supported | WebSocket support (free tier) | Notable feature |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alchemy | 30M compute units / month | Major L1s + L2s (Ethereum, Solana, BNB Chain, Avalanche, Polygon, Arbitrum, Optimism, Base, Starknet, zkSync + more; exact count not published) | Yes — "Smart WebSockets" included free | Smart WebSockets + built-in enhanced NFT/Token APIs |
| Infura | 3,000,000 credits / day | 40+ networks | — | Credit-based system across all plans; long-standing default RPC in MetaMask |
| QuickNode | 10,000,000 API credits / month | "All supported chains" (exact total not stated on pricing page) | — | Streams + Webhooks add-ons; Flat-Rate RPS plans for high-volume workloads |
| Ankr | 30 req/s (Node API) — ≈2.59M req/month at cap | 50+ chains on the free tier (76+ across all paid tiers) | No — WSS is paid-tier only | Public multi-chain RPC across one of the widest free chain lists |
| Chainstack | 3,000,000 Request Units / month | Enterprise tier lists 70+ blockchains; free-tier chain list not separately stated | Yes — WebSockets endpoint included on the Developer (free) tier | Elastic/archive-node RU pricing (archive nodes cost 2 RU vs. 1 RU for full nodes) |
| GetBlock | 50,000 compute units / day (per GetBlock's Jan-2025 free-plan update) | 130+ chains across paid plans; free-plan chain coverage not separately specified | — | Shared + dedicated full-node access; free plan aimed at prototyping/research |
| Blockdaemon | 3,000,000 compute units / month, capped at 5 requests/sec | ~12 protocols highlighted on the pricing page (Ethereum, Solana, Sui, Cardano, NEAR, Stellar, Monad, Canton, Arc, Tempo, TON, Aave); full count not stated | — | Institutional-grade infrastructure; also offers staking/custody APIs |
Methodology
Notes on our figures
- Providers meter free-tier usage in incompatible units (compute units, credits, or a flat requests-per-second cap) — the figures above are each provider's own published unit, not normalised to a common request count, because doing so would require assumptions about call mix that vary per application.
- WebSocket support marked null where the provider's own pricing page did not state it either way for the free tier — this is a gap in the source, not a confirmed "no".
Additional sources
- Infura — Pricing (retrieved )
- QuickNode — Pricing (retrieved )
- Ankr — RPC Service (retrieved )
- Chainstack — Pricing (retrieved )
- GetBlock — GetBlock Adjusts Its Free RPC Connection Package (retrieved )
- Blockdaemon — API Pricing (retrieved )