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Overview​

Quicknode is a blockchain development platform that provides fast, reliable APIs and tools to make building in web3 simple and seamless.

Modern applications are already complex, combining front-end interfaces, back-end services, databases, and APIs. Adding blockchain into the mix introduces new challenges, from managing nodes to handling on-chain data.

Quicknode removes that complexity by offering a unified platform that connects your app to leading blockchain networks in minutes.

Quicknode's product suite covers blockchain reads and writes, real-time data delivery, indexed and historical data, onchain trading, and decentralized storage, plus the developer tools you use to drive all of it from code, a terminal, or an AI coding agent. The sections below follow the same grouping you will find in the product menu and in your dashboard.

Infrastructure​

Core RPC API​

With the Quicknode Core API, you gain access to a globally distributed network of nodes that lets you interact with blockchains without managing your own infrastructure. Quicknode handles the heavy lifting so you can focus on building your application.

The Core API supports both read and write operations through HTTPS and WebSocket endpoints, providing RPC, REST, and gRPC access depending on the blockchain network.

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Resources​

Check out Core API docs under the API Reference section of the chain you are interested in here: Quicknode Docs.

Dedicated Clusters​

Dedicated Clusters give you a backend of nodes reserved for your workload alone, with redundancy across regions. Because nothing else shares that capacity, throughput and latency stay predictable, which matters for mission-critical or spiky traffic.

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Validator as a Service​

Validator as a Service runs validators on your behalf. Quicknode operates the hardware, monitoring, and upgrades under an SLA, so your team gets validator uptime without taking on node operations. White-label support is available for teams that need to run validators under their own brand.

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Endpoint Add-ons​

Endpoint add-ons extend an endpoint you already have with capabilities like fee estimation, transaction broadcasting, MEV protection, and risk scoring. Solana Priority Fee API, Single Flight RPC, and Multi-region Transaction Broadcast are common starting points.

Add-ons come in a few shapes: RPC add-ons you call directly from your endpoint, REST add-ons that expose their own API, and external add-ons that run as standalone products.

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Real-Time Data​

Streams​

Streams makes it simple to capture, process, and deliver historical and real-time blockchain data to your preferred destinations. You can reliably stream on-chain events to webhooks, databases, or messaging systems without manual polling or managing infrastructure.

Streams ensures data consistency, scalability, and guaranteed delivery, so your applications stay up to date with every blockchain event.

Learn how to set up Quicknode Streams and get blockchain data to your app.
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Resources​


Webhooks​

Tracking onchain activity requires deep knowledge of the blockchain's data models and robust infrastructure. Ensuring reliability and the lowest latencies requires frequent polling or redundant websocket connections which can be very costly at scale.

Webhooks allow you to receive real-time notifications for onchain events. You can set up expressions to target specific data on the blockchain (e.g., transactions to/from a specific wallet, smart contract events, or even new blocks) to track specific onchain activity.

When your specified event occurs, Quicknode will instantly send a notification (a webhook) to a destination URL you provide, eliminating the need for constant polling.

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Solana gRPC​

Solana gRPC streams Solana account, slot, block, and transaction updates over a Yellowstone-compatible Geyser gRPC interface. You subscribe once and receive updates as the validator sees them, which is faster and cheaper than polling getAccountInfo in a loop or maintaining a fleet of WebSocket subscriptions.

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Indexed Data​

SQL Explorer​

SQL Explorer provides direct SQL access to indexed blockchain data without requiring any infrastructure. You can query billions of rows of on-chain data using standard SQL syntax and receive results in seconds.

SQL Explorer supports full SQL functionality including functions, subqueries, window functions, CTEs, and aggregations. You can access it through the interactive dashboard or programmatically via the REST API.

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Blockbook​

Blockbook is a wallet-centric indexer for UTXO and EVM chains. Rather than scanning blocks yourself, you query an address or xpub and get balances, transaction history, and UTXOs back in one call over REST or JSON-RPC.

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Metaplex DAS API​

The Metaplex Digital Asset Standard (DAS) API is the query layer for Solana digital assets. It returns NFTs, compressed NFTs, fungible tokens, and MPL Core assets by owner, group, creator, or authority, including the compressed assets that standard RPC methods cannot resolve on their own.

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Ordinals & Runes API​

The Ordinals & Runes API exposes Bitcoin inscriptions and Runes as structured data. You can look up inscriptions, satoshi ranges, collections, Runes balances, and the UTXOs holding them over REST or JSON-RPC.

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AI Agents (ERC-8004)​

ERC-8004 is the onchain standard for AI agent identity and reputation. The AI Agents API turns it into a query-ready REST and JSON-RPC interface: no node syncing, no event log parsing, and no reputation formula to implement yourself.

Discover registered agents by owner address or network and retrieve a transparently computed reputation score, built from feedback scoring, sybil resistance, reliability, and validator-weighted signals. You can also list an agent's full feedback and validation history and query outstanding validator requests. The underlying data is continuously indexed from live contract events across mainnet and testnet deployments on the most widely used EVM-compatible chains, so results reflect current onchain state.

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Token & NFT API​

The Token & NFT API answers wallet-level questions in a single call instead of making you enumerate contracts and call balanceOf yourself. You pass an address and get back ERC-20 balances, NFT holdings with metadata, and transfer history across supported EVM networks.

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Trading & DeFi​

Swap API​

The Swap API aggregates token swap liquidity across Solana and EVM networks behind a single integration. You request a quote, receive a route, and get back a ready-to-sign transaction, so you never have to connect to individual DEXs yourself.

One API key covers every supported provider, including Metis (Jupiter) on Solana and 0x, OpenOcean, Aerodrome, and Velodrome on EVM networks. On Solana, Metis also covers Pump.fun trading, limit orders, and WebSocket price updates.

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Earn​

Earn is a non-custodial USDC yield optimizer. You deposit once, and Earn allocates the balance across Morpho vaults on supported EVM networks, rebalancing and bridging automatically as rates move. Funds stay in your control throughout, and the same behavior is available through a REST API if you want to offer yield inside your own app.

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Solana Validator​

Quicknode runs a high-performance, public validator on the Solana network, offering a secure way to stake your SOL.

With a 0% commission fee, 100% of all staking rewards, including JITO tips (MEV rewards), are passed directly to you. By delegating your stake to the Quicknode validator, you help support the decentralization and security of the Solana network while maximizing your yield, all backed by Quicknode's industry-leading 100% uptime and reliability.

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Monad Validator​

Quicknode also operates a validator on Monad. You can delegate MON to it from your wallet and earn staking rewards while Quicknode handles the infrastructure, monitoring, and uptime. See the Monad staking page for current commission and reward details.

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Storage​

IPFS​

Blockchain storage space is costly, and storing files on the blockchain network could be impractical. That is where decentralized storage protocol like IPFS comes into play. IPFS (InterPlanetary File System) is a peer-to-peer file storage system.

Files on IPFS are uploaded via IPFS nodes, and when these files are not accessed for a long time or if the node goes down, the file can be lost.

With Quicknode's IPFS pinning service, you can pin your IPFS files without worrying about losing access to your data. You can upload, store, and manage your files anytime, and they will be available anytime you want to access them without running your own IPFS node.

Since IPFS is a protocol, most browsers cannot access the files natively as they work with HTTPS protocol. So, one needs a gateway to access files on IPFS via HTTPS protocol. Quicknode offers IPFS gateways, which you can use to access files from IPFS. With Quicknode, you can create custom domains for your IPFS gateways and create private (can only access files uploaded via Quicknode IPFS pinning) or public (can access any file stored on IPFS) gateways.

Quicknode IPFS pinning can be accessed via both Quicknode dashboard and REST API.

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Key-Value Store​

Key-Value Store is a robust data storage solution that enables you to manage extensive lists of datapoints, such as millions of wallet addresses, and key-value sets.

It is designed for efficient storage and quick retrieval, integrating seamlessly with Quicknode Streams. This allows you to evaluate your stored lists (e.g., a list of tracked wallets) against real-time blockchain data with high efficiency.

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Platform​

Admin API​

The Admin API allows you to programmatically manage your account and resources via a REST API. This gives you the power to perform actions that you would normally do in the User Dashboard, such as:


  • Creating, managing, and deleting endpoints
  • Retrieving metrics and billing information
  • Managing and rotating API keys
  • Configuring endpoint security features (e.g., whitelisting, JWT authentication)

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Custom RPC Options​

Quicknode offers custom RPC options designed for enterprise customers who require performance, isolation, and scalability beyond standard shared infrastructure. These solutions are ideal for latency-sensitive applications (e.g., trading) or operations that require a private environment to ensure consistent performance.

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Developer Tools​

Alongside the products above, Quicknode maintains the tools you use to drive them: from your own code, from a terminal, and from an AI coding agent.

SDK​

The SDK gives you one typed client for Quicknode product APIs in the language you already use: Node.js and TypeScript, Python, Rust, or Ruby.

A single client covers the Admin API, RPC calls to any supported network, Streams, Webhooks, Key-Value Store, and SQL Explorer. One workflow can provision an endpoint, open a stream, and store its cursor without switching libraries.

npm install @quicknode/sdk

The Python, Rust, and Ruby packages are listed on the SDK docs page. The SDK can also pay for RPC calls with a wallet instead of an API key, covered under Agentic Payments below.

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CLI​

The CLI is the qn command for working with Quicknode from a terminal, a shell script, or a CI job. Install it, then authenticate:

# Other platforms: https://www.quicknode.com/docs/cli#install
brew install quicknode/tap/qn
qn auth login
qn endpoint list

qn covers endpoints, teams, usage, billing, logs, metrics, endpoint security, Streams, Webhooks, Key-Value Store, and SQL Explorer. It also sends RPC calls to any supported network, so you can test an idea before you create a project:

qn rpc call eth_blockNumber --network ethereum-mainnet

Because the CLI takes explicit credentials and returns structured output, the same command you run locally also runs as a preflight check in CI.

Resources​


Quicknode MCP​

The Quicknode MCP server connects your account to MCP-compatible AI assistants, including Claude, ChatGPT, Codex, Cursor, and VS Code. You then create endpoints, monitor usage, configure security rules, and review billing in natural language instead of navigating the dashboard or writing API scripts.

The server is hosted at https://mcp.quicknode.com/mcp and authenticates over OAuth, so there is nothing to run locally. It works on top of the Admin API and executes each operation only after you confirm it. Quicknode is an official connector in the Anthropic directory and an app in ChatGPT, so those clients connect in a few clicks. For CI and other non-interactive environments, you can pass an API key instead of using OAuth.

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Build Web3 Plugin​

The Build Web3 plugin gives an AI coding agent working knowledge of Quicknode. Describe an app and the agent selects a chain and a stack, then writes a starter that uses correct method names and schemas. Point it at a project you already have and it reports the problems it finds, then repairs what you approve.

One install adds two things to your agent: the build-web3 skill, which carries a reference file for every Quicknode product, and the Quicknode MCP server. In Claude Code:

/plugin marketplace add quicknode/agent-plugins
/plugin install build-web3@quicknode-agent-plugins

Codex installs the plugin the same way. Cursor, VS Code, Windsurf, and Zed install the skill and the MCP server separately. The skill needs no Quicknode account, while MCP and product operations do.

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Agentic Payments​

Agentic payments let an application or an agent pay for Quicknode requests with a wallet instead of an API key. Quicknode supports two protocols, both built on HTTP 402 Payment Required: x402, the open standard from Coinbase, and MPP, an IETF Internet-Draft from Tempo Labs and Stripe.

There are two ways to use them. An agent can call RPC methods directly against x402.quicknode.com or mpp.quicknode.com with no account at all, paying per request or drawing down prepaid credits. Or it can pay for an Agent Subscription and receive a full platform API key, which unlocks the rest of the suite: endpoints, Streams, Webhooks, SQL Explorer, Key-Value Store, and the Admin API.

The chain you pay on is independent of the chain you query. Testnet stablecoins are accepted, so you can make paid calls without spending real funds and without signing up. The CLI is the quickest way to see it work:

qn wallet generate --vm evm --name payer
qn rpc x402 drip --payment-wallet payer --payment-network base-sepolia
qn rpc call eth_blockNumber --network ethereum-mainnet --x402 \
  --payment-wallet payer --payment-network base-sepolia \
  --payment-asset USDC --max-amount 10000

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Utilities​

Quicknode also hosts a set of free tools that need no account or setup.

Multi-chain Faucet​

Before deploying a dApp to a mainnet, you usually test it on a testnet, and that requires testnet tokens. The Multi-chain Faucet drips tokens for many testnet networks, with bonus amounts if you sign in to your Quicknode account or share a post about it.

Gas Tracker​

Track real-time Ethereum gas prices and Solana priority fees:


Smart Contract Explorer​

The Smart Contract Explorer pulls useful data out of smart contracts across EVM networks. You can browse contracts from popular protocols, read their ABIs and events, and call read and write functions from the page. When you are ready to move the same call into your codebase, it generates code examples in several languages and libraries.

Closing Notes​

To continue learning how Quicknode can help you build easier in web3, check out our diverse set of technical guides, documentation, sample applications, and video tutorials.

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