One key, many chains: switching an example to another chain

1. One key across all supported chains

The same API key works on all supported chains for JSON-RPC, and for the Data API on chains where it is available. Keys belong to your account and are not bound to a specific chain; there is no need to generate separate API keys for each network.

Credits and rate limits are shared across all networks and across the JSON-RPC API and the Data API; they are not split by network. For detailed billing rules, see the Pricing page.

• Pooled balance: Paid top-ups and free credits apply across all chains. Calls on any chain draw from the same account balance.
• Pooled rate limits: Compute Unit (CU) refill rates and burst capacities apply across all chains for a given key. Free Plan per-second call limits are pooled across all supported chains rather than split per chain.
• Upgrade path: After topping up, you are no longer constrained by the Free Plan's per-second call limit; each key remains subject to CU rate and burst limits, as described in the JSON-RPC documentation.

2. URL structure and the {chain} parameter

Every chain-scoped request specifies its target network in the URL path using {chain}. The {chain} parameter is the lowercase slug identifier of the chain (for example robinhood_mainnet).

GET /v1/chains reports a jsonrpc and a data flag for each chain. Address a chain with the JSON-RPC URLs when it serves JSON-RPC, and with GET /v1/data/{chain}/… when its data flag is true (the Data API serves only those chains).

Tip: When passing your key via request headers, format the URL to end with the chain name, without a trailing slash. JSON-RPC is served exclusively at /v1/{chain} and /v1/{chain}/{api_key}. Requests with a trailing slash (such as /v1/{chain}/) or missing a chain segment return HTTP 404 with an empty body. Requests to an unknown {chain} return HTTP 404 with error.data.reason: "unknown_chain" (not billed).

3. Programmatic chain discovery and capabilities

Supported chains and their capabilities are served dynamically. Do not hardcode a static list of chains in your application. Instead, discover available networks and their capabilities at runtime:

Discover static facts via GET /v1/chains

This public endpoint is unauthenticated and not billed, returning all publicly available chains:

GET /v1/chains

Example response:

{
  "chains": [
    {
      "chain": "robinhood_mainnet", "name": "Robinhood Chain", "chain_id": 4663,
      "jsonrpc": true,
      "data": true,
      "methods": {
        "allow": ["eth_blockNumber", "eth_call", "eth_chainId", "debug_traceTransaction"],
        "deny": ["eth_newFilter", "eth_newBlockFilter", "eth_newPendingTransactionFilter", "eth_getFilterLogs", "eth_getFilterChanges", "eth_uninstallFilter", "eth_subscribe", "eth_unsubscribe"]
      },
      "max_logs_block_range": 1000,
      "state_window_blocks": 900
    }
  ]
}

Field reference:

• chain: Chain identifier slug (used for {chain} in URLs)
• name: Human-readable display name
• chain_id: EIP-155 chain ID (decimal integer)
• jsonrpc: Whether JSON-RPC is enabled
• data: Whether the Data API is enabled
• methods: JSON-RPC method policy for the chain, including allow (allowed methods) and deny (explicitly denied methods)
• max_logs_block_range: Maximum block range allowed in a single eth_getLogs request
• state_window_blocks: Historical state window size in blocks; null when unconstrained

Check operational health via GET /v1/status

This public endpoint is unauthenticated and not billed, returning service readiness and chain head information:

GET /v1/status

Example response:

{
  "checked_at": "2026-09-28T12:00:00Z",
  "gateway": {
    "status": "ok"
  },
  "chains": [
    {
      "chain": "robinhood_mainnet", "name": "Robinhood Chain", "chain_id": 4663,
      "jsonrpc": true,
      "data": true,
      "data_features": ["blocks", "transactions", "address_transactions", "transfers", "token_metadata", "freshness"],
      "status": "ok",
      "head": {
        "block": 73017329,
        "time": "2026-09-28T11:59:58Z",
        "lag_seconds": 2
      }
    }
  ]
}

Field reference:

• gateway.status: Service status (ok or degraded)
• chains[].data_features: Capabilities provided by the Data API for this chain
• chains[].status: Node operational status (ok or unavailable)
• chains[].head: Latest block head (block, time, lag_seconds)

4. Per-chain differences to keep in mind

When switching between chains, review the fields provided in GET /v1/chains:

1. Method allowance and policy (methods.allow / methods.deny): Available JSON-RPC methods vary by network according to their method policy. Requesting a disallowed method returns HTTP 200 with JSON-RPC error code -32601 (method not available, not billed).
2. Log block range (max_logs_block_range): Maximum block spans for eth_getLogs queries differ by chain. Exceeding the chain's limit returns HTTP 200 with JSON-RPC error code -32602 (eth_getLogs block range too large, not billed).
3. State retention window (state_window_blocks): Full-history chains return null. On chains with state pruning, historical state queries outside the window return HTTP 200 with JSON-RPC error code -32011 (historical state is not available beyond the most recent <N> blocks, not billed).
4. Data API features and coverage (data / data_features): The chains that provide a dataset are listed on the Supported Chains page. Querying a dataset a chain does not support, or a block before its indexed coverage, returns HTTP 422 (error.code no_coverage, not billed). When the service is temporarily unavailable — for example, when a chain is busy — requests return HTTP 503 with a Retry-After header (not billed).

5. Code examples

Complete starter template: blockvectra/multichain-viem

The exact same code runs across different chains by updating the chain variable (or reading it from GET /v1/chains), querying eth_blockNumber via JSON-RPC and dataset freshness via the Data API:

export BLOCKVECTRA_API_KEY="rgw_your_api_key"

# Change the chain variable to target another chain from Supported Chains
CHAIN="robinhood_mainnet"

# 1. JSON-RPC: Query eth_blockNumber (POST /v1/{chain}, key in the x-api-key header).
RPC_URL="https://api.blockvectra.com/v1/$CHAIN"
curl -s "$RPC_URL" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "x-api-key: $BLOCKVECTRA_API_KEY" \
  -d '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":1,"method":"eth_blockNumber","params":[]}'

# 2. Data API: Query dataset freshness (GET /v1/data/{chain}/status/freshness)
curl -s "https://api.blockvectra.com/v1/data/$CHAIN/status/freshness" \
  -H "x-api-key: $BLOCKVECTRA_API_KEY"

Example responses

JSON-RPC eth_blockNumber successful response (billed at the method's CU weight):

{
  "jsonrpc": "2.0",
  "id": 1,
  "result": "0x45a27f1"
}

Data API GET /v1/data/{chain}/status/freshness successful response (billed in CU, only 2xx successful responses are billed):

{
  "data": [
    {
      "dataset": "blocks",
      "category": "raw",
      "max_block_number": 72313256,
      "max_day": null,
      "max_time": "2026-09-28T03:41:07Z",
      "seconds_behind": 0,
      "blocks_behind": null,
      "days_behind": null,
      "checked_at": "2026-09-28T03:41:10Z"
    },
    {
      "dataset": "traces",
      "category": "raw",
      "max_block_number": 72313256,
      "max_day": null,
      "max_time": "2026-09-28T03:41:07Z",
      "seconds_behind": 0,
      "blocks_behind": null,
      "days_behind": null,
      "coverage_from_block": 72050949,
      "coverage_to_block": 72313256,
      "coverage_complete": true,
      "checked_at": "2026-09-28T03:41:10Z"
    },
    {
      "dataset": "dex_prices",
      "category": "derived",
      "max_block_number": null,
      "max_day": "2026-09-27",
      "max_time": "2026-09-27T00:00:00Z",
      "seconds_behind": 99667,
      "blocks_behind": null,
      "days_behind": 1,
      "checked_at": "2026-09-28T03:41:10Z"
    }
  ],
  "meta": {
    "chain": "robinhood_mainnet",
    "chain_slug": "ROBINHOOD_MAINNET",
    "chain_external_id": "eip155:4663",
    "as_of_block": 72313256,
    "safe_block": 72313100,
    "finalized_block": 72313000,
    "coverage": "full",
    "refreshed_at": "2026-09-28T03:41:10Z"
  }
}

Next steps

• Browse the datasets directory to see every dataset BlockVectra indexes.
• See the free plan and pricing to check what your account includes.
• Log in to the console to create an API key.