RPC method

eth_call on Arbitrum Nova

Supported on SwiftNodes

Everything below was measured on 2026-10-13 by calling eth_call on Arbitrum Nova through the same endpoint customers use, and is re-measured weekly.

What eth_call does

Executes a call against a block's state without creating a transaction, and returns the output bytes. Every contract read (balanceOf, quotes, view functions) is an eth_call. It costs nothing on-chain but still runs the EVM on the node.

eth_call on Arbitrum Nova: what we measured

Multicall3 at 0xcA11…CA11	deployed (3,808 bytes)
block.number seen inside a call	26,183,622
eth_blockNumber at the same time	85,284,524
State override (third parameter)	supported
Call with gas 0xffffffffffffffff	accepted (capped by the node)
Block given by hash (EIP-1898)	accepted

What this means on Arbitrum Nova

Inside a contract call, block.number returned 26,183,622, while eth_blockNumber returned 85,284,524. On Arbitrum Nova, the NUMBER opcode returns the Ethereum (L1) block number, not the L2 one. Contracts that time things in blocks count L1 blocks (about 12 s each), and you need ArbSys(0x64).arbBlockNumber() for the L2 number.

State overrides work: you can replace an account's code, balance or storage for one call. That lets you simulate a transaction from an address with no funds, or test a contract change before deploying it.

Multicall3 is deployed at the standard address, so viem's client.multicall and ethers' multicall helpers batch many reads into one eth_call here without configuration.

Example request

curl -s https://rpc.swiftnodes.io/rpc/arbitrum-nova?key=YOUR_API_KEY \
  -X POST -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":1,"method":"eth_call","params":[{"to":"0xcA11bde05977b3631167028862bE2a173976CA11","data":"0x42cbb15c"},"latest"]}'

import { createPublicClient, erc20Abi, http } from "viem";

const client = createPublicClient({
  transport: http("https://rpc.swiftnodes.io/rpc/arbitrum-nova?key=YOUR_API_KEY"),
});

const balance = await client.readContract({
  address: token, abi: erc20Abi, functionName: "balanceOf", args: [owner],
});

// Many reads in one eth_call (Multicall3 is deployed on Arbitrum Nova)
const [name, symbol, supply] = await client.multicall({
  contracts: ["name", "symbol", "totalSupply"].map((functionName) => ({ address: token, abi: erc20Abi, functionName })),
  allowFailure: false,
});

// Simulate with a state override: pretend the sender holds 10 ETH
await client.call({ account: sender, to, data, stateOverride: [{ address: sender, balance: 10n * 10n ** 18n }] });

Other methods on Arbitrum Nova

eth_call on other chains

Frequently asked questions

Does Arbitrum Nova support eth_call?

Yes. eth_call answered on the SwiftNodes Arbitrum Nova endpoint when our weekly probe called it through the customer path (2026-10-13).

Is Multicall3 deployed on Arbitrum Nova?

Yes, at 0xcA11bde05977b3631167028862bE2a173976CA11 (3,808 bytes of code, checked 2026-10-13).

Does eth_call support state overrides on Arbitrum Nova?

Yes. The third parameter accepts code, balance and storage overrides.

Arbitrum Nova endpoints, live block height and WebSocket status are on the Arbitrum Nova RPC page.

One key covers every chain we serve, and SwiftNodes has a free tier.