Ethereum RPC Endpoint

Fast, flat-rate Ethereum RPC node provider — free tier, no KYC, HTTP & WebSocket.

Ethereum is the original general-purpose smart contract blockchain and the foundation of decentralized finance, NFTs, and on-chain governance. SwiftNodes provides reliable, low-latency Ethereum mainnet RPC with both HTTP and WebSocket support across load-balanced upstream nodes.

Network: Ethereum
Type: EVM
Chain ID: 1
Slug: eth
Native token: ETH (Ether)
Block time: ~12 seconds
Finality: ~12 minutes (two epochs)
Mainnet: July 30, 2015
Category: Layer 1 (proof-of-stake)

About Ethereum

Ethereum launched in July 2015 and transitioned from proof-of-work to proof-of-stake in September 2022 ("The Merge"). Block times settled at roughly 12 seconds after the move, and economic finality is reached after two epochs — about 12 minutes. With the Dencun upgrade, blob storage (EIP-4844) made data-availability for rollups dramatically cheaper, accelerating the L2 ecosystem.

As of today, Ethereum hosts the majority of DeFi total-value-locked, the largest validator set of any proof-of-stake chain, and most major stablecoin issuers. Developers use Solidity or Vyper for contracts; mainstream tooling includes Foundry, Hardhat, viem, ethers.js, and web3.py.

Common Use Cases on Ethereum

  • DeFi protocols (Uniswap, Aave, Curve, Maker)
  • Stablecoin issuance and settlement (USDC, USDT, DAI)
  • NFT minting and marketplaces
  • DAO governance and on-chain treasuries
  • Layer-2 rollups settle proofs and data here

Ethereum Ecosystem

Ethereum is home to the largest blockchain dev ecosystem: Uniswap, Aave, Maker (Sky), Lido, EigenLayer, Curve, Compound, ENS, OpenSea, and the major centralized stablecoins. Every notable Ethereum L2 — Optimism, Arbitrum, Base, zkSync, Scroll, Linea — settles to Ethereum mainnet.

HTTP Endpoint

https://rpc.swiftnodes.io/rpc/eth?key=YOUR_API_KEY

WebSocket Endpoint

wss://rpc.swiftnodes.io/ws/eth?key=YOUR_API_KEY

Quick Start: Connect to Ethereum

cURL

curl -X POST https://rpc.swiftnodes.io/rpc/eth?key=YOUR_API_KEY \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","method":"eth_blockNumber","params":[],"id":1}'

ethers.js

import { JsonRpcProvider } from "ethers";

const provider = new JsonRpcProvider(
  "https://rpc.swiftnodes.io/rpc/eth?key=YOUR_API_KEY"
);

const blockNumber = await provider.getBlockNumber();
console.log("Ethereum block:", blockNumber);

viem

import { createPublicClient, http } from "viem";

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

const blockNumber = await client.getBlockNumber();

web3.py

from web3 import Web3

w3 = Web3(Web3.HTTPProvider("https://rpc.swiftnodes.io/rpc/eth?key=YOUR_API_KEY"))
print("Ethereum block:", w3.eth.block_number)

Add Ethereum to MetaMask

Network Name: Ethereum (SwiftNodes)
RPC URL: https://rpc.swiftnodes.io/rpc/eth?key=YOUR_API_KEY
Chain ID: 1
Currency Symbol: ETH
WebSocket: wss://rpc.swiftnodes.io/ws/eth?key=YOUR_API_KEY

Bridging to Ethereum

Most Ethereum L2s use canonical bridges (1-2 hour deposits, 7-day withdrawals for optimistic rollups). Third-party fast bridges like Across, Stargate, and Hop offer near-instant transfers.

Features of SwiftNodes for Ethereum

  • Multiple load-balanced upstream nodes for high availability
  • Health-checked every 60 seconds with automatic failover
  • Free tier available — no credit card or KYC required
  • Flat-rate monthly pricing with no per-request fees
  • HTTP and WebSocket support
  • One API key works across all 75+ supported chains, including Ethereum

Rate Limits

PlanPriceHTTP req/sWS msg/s
Free$0/mo21
Starter$49/mo5025
Growth$89/mo15075
Scale$149/mo300150
Pro$249/mo500250

Frequently Asked Questions: Ethereum

What's Ethereum's chain ID?

Ethereum mainnet is chain ID 1.

Is WebSocket supported?

Yes — SwiftNodes provides both HTTP and WebSocket (wss://) endpoints with eth_subscribe support for blocks, pending transactions, and logs.

What clients do your nodes run?

We run a mix of execution clients (geth, erigon, reth) behind a load-balancer with health-checked failover, so a single node going down doesn't affect your application.

Do you support archive node queries?

Standard plans serve recent-state queries. Archive queries (state at any historical block) are available on Pro plans.

Ready to start building on Ethereum? Connect your wallet and get a free API key in 30 seconds. No email or KYC required.