RPC method

eth_getBlockByNumber on Unichain

Supported on SwiftNodes

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

What eth_getBlockByNumber does

Returns a block by number or tag (latest, safe, finalized, pending, earliest): the header, and either the transaction hashes or the full transactions. Indexers, explorers and wallets use it to follow the chain.

eth_getBlockByNumber on Unichain: what we measured

Header fields	26
Transactions per block	8, 8, 8, 8, 8 in five consecutive blocks
Response size, full transactions (true)	9.9 KB average
Response size, hashes only (false)	2.3 KB
Gas limit	60,000,000
Gas used in the latest block	612,508 (1.0% of the limit)
Base fee	500,000 wei
Tag "safe"	block 61,146,287
Tag "finalized"	block 61,145,601
Tag "pending"	block 61,146,682
Tag "earliest"	block 0

What is different on Unichain

The header includes the fields added by London (EIP-1559 base fee), Shanghai (withdrawals), Cancun (EIP-4844 blob gas), Cancun (EIP-4788 beacon root), Prague (EIP-7685 requests). Code that assumes Ethereum's current header shape will parse it as is.

Asking for full transactions (second parameter true) made the response 4.4 times larger than hashes only. If you need only some transactions, fetch hashes and request those transactions or their receipts individually.

5 of the 40 transactions in those five blocks were system transactions (5 × type 0x7e, L1-to-L2 deposit (OP Stack)). They are not user activity: filter them out when counting transactions.

"finalized" was 1,075 blocks (about 18 min) behind the head.

A real Unichain block header

From block 61,146,674, as our endpoint returned it (long hex values shortened).

{
  "baseFeePerGas": "0x7a120",
  "blobGasUsed": "0x5da70",
  "difficulty": "0x0",
  "excessBlobGas": "0x0",
  "extraData": "0x01000000fa0000000c000000000007a120",
  "gasLimit": "0x3938700",
  "gasUsed": "0x9589c",
  "hash": "0x05ff42d32ed7f5c2b0c4b3e02d0b6ff7184382825cd160b3fbe14a428b974b36",
  "logsBloom": "0x0000000000000000…(256 bytes)",
  "miner": "0x4200000000000000000000000000000000000011",
  "mixHash": "0xe4b88fe5fd69598d33449d0dbd678929b0f3b0b0075686379f90011f8718bf4c",
  "nonce": "0x0000000000000000",
  "number": "0x3a50632",
  "parentBeaconBlockRoot": "0x3b961e6515834ed7d5f8640f0f3100e0c37910373779c71e9149e421360b15a2",
  "parentHash": "0x1cc0c9e9cef5a662637687b78748d1d4cbb840e568b3bf6a204837ab3c9f6a81",
  "receiptsRoot": "0xfe591b058d200a4e9af41199c2ffe1f26dc5166709d8dc40516d6593886de92e",
  "requestsHash": "0xe3b0c44298fc1c149afbf4c8996fb92427ae41e4649b934ca495991b7852b855",
  "sha3Uncles": "0x1dcc4de8dec75d7aab85b567b6ccd41ad312451b948a7413f0a142fd40d49347",
  "size": "0xba1",
  "stateRoot": "0x83b56d5f7fb25732d263c60cbd5c84b1cf2ef5681c5ec998bd5c9fe2daa28c96",
  "timestamp": "0x6ace25f9",
  "transactions": "8 transactions",
  "transactionsRoot": "0x08ae0c66a105b008f27b923189fd75dea6bcdae95b855e634f0ba12e0070c5bb",
  "uncles": [],
  "withdrawals": [],
  "withdrawalsRoot": "0xf0da6a972a5e0347524e8e57ee0eb81e7a5fb6a3a92c205ac3ac75721283b5ed"
}

Example request

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

import { createPublicClient, http } from "viem";

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

// Header plus transaction hashes (2.3 KB)
const block = await client.getBlock({ blockTag: "latest" });

// With full transactions (9.9 KB on average on Unichain)
const full = await client.getBlock({ blockNumber: block.number, includeTransactions: true });
const userTxs = full.transactions.filter((t) => !["0x7e"].includes(t.typeHex));

// A block that will not be reorganised
const final = await client.getBlock({ blockTag: "finalized" });

Other methods on Unichain

eth_getBlockByNumber on other chains

Frequently asked questions

Does Unichain support eth_getBlockByNumber?

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

How many transactions are in each Unichain block?

In five consecutive blocks on 2026-10-13: 8, 8, 8, 8, 8.

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

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