Top 5 Infura alternatives in 2026: daily credit quotas vs flat billing, archive and trace access

Teams comparing Infura alternatives usually check these points: daily credit quotas that stop service for the rest of the UTC day once spent, an eth_getLogs call that costs 255 credits against 80 for eth_call, a Debug / Trace API from the $50 Developer plan, and no dedicated nodes on the pricing page. This guide compares Infura with Chainstack, Dwellir, OnFinality, NOWNodes, and Quicknode, checked against provider pages and docs in October 2026.

We publish this on the Chainstack blog, so Chainstack is first and you should weigh that. Every price comes from a live provider page, and the performance section uses the public Chainstack RPC benchmark reports, which do not cover Infura. Moving off Infura? Jump to the migration steps.

💡 Already using Chainstack? Jump straight to the Polygon tooling docs or deploy your endpoint from the console.

Why teams look for Infura alternatives

Infura is a Consensys product with full archive data on every plan including the free Core plan, WebSocket subscriptions on Polygon PoS, 40+ networks on its pricing page and wiring into MetaMask Connect, the successor to the legacy MetaMask SDK.

• A daily quota that stops at the limit. Core gives 3M credits a day at 500 credits per second, Developer ($50) 15M at 4,000 and Team ($225) 75M at 40,000. At the limit Infura returns a 402 error and halts traffic until 00:00 UTC, and WebSocket connections are severed. Extra credits are a 55M add-on for $200 a month on paid plans. Its FAQ gives Core as 6M a day at 2,000 per second, against 3M and 500 in the table.
• Credits that vary by method. eth_call and eth_blockNumber cost 80 credits, eth_getLogs 255, trace methods 300 and debug methods 1,000. Polygon has its own entries only for bor_ methods, so other calls take the Ethereum value. Core’s 3M daily credits cover 37,500 eth_call requests or about 11,700 eth_getLogs requests.
• Debug and trace on Polygon. The Debug / Trace API starts at Developer. The docs call the Trace API an open beta and document it under Ethereum, and the Polygon PoS reference lists no debug or trace methods.
• Dedicated capacity and coverage. The pricing page lists no dedicated nodes (Enterprise is custom, with an enhanced support SLA). Its docs endpoint list names 24 networks, with Solana limited to select customers.
• Compliance, SLA and benchmarks. The Consensys security page lists ISO 27001:2022 for Consensys and SOC 2 reports for other products, and does not name Infura. We found no Infura-specific report. Its Ethereum product page states 99.9% uptime, the pricing page lists an enhanced support SLA only on Enterprise, and Chainstack’s benchmark reports do not include Infura (all eight editions checked, including Arc), so there are no latency figures for it.

Infura alternatives compared: daily quotas, free plan, and archive (2026)

The table summarizes public positioning as of October 2026.

Rank	Provider	Best for	Pricing model	Free tier	Dedicated nodes	Archive & trace	Standout
—	Infura (for reference)	—	Credits per method, daily quota; Developer $50 (15M a day), Team $225 (75M a day)	Yes, Core plan, 3M credits a day, 500 credits per second	None listed; Enterprise is custom	Archive data on every plan at the same credits (currently); Debug / Trace API from Developer	40+ networks, MetaMask Connect integration
1	Chainstack	Archive and trace on a fixed monthly plan instead of daily credit quotas, with SOC 2 Type II and ISO 27001	Flat request units, 1 RU full, 2 RU archive, debug and trace; overage on paid plans	Yes, Developer plan, 3M RU, 25 RPS, no card	Yes, from the Pro plan; Unlimited Node add-on from $149 (Growth or higher)	Archive and debug and trace from Growth ($49)	Best score in its own benchmarks (disclosed below), SOC 2 Type II and ISO 27001
2	Dwellir	One flat credit per response and public dedicated cluster prices	1 credit per response, no compute units; shared plans $49 (25M) to $999 (500M)	Yes, 100,000 daily responses, no eth_getLogs, trace or debug	Clusters from $2,400 a month (Polygon $12,600); Unlimited Nodes from $119	Trace and debug from $49; Polygon archive via dedicated options	150+ networks by its own count
3	OnFinality	Paid plans with no daily limit, plus indexer hosting and dedicated nodes	Response units, 1 for most methods, 3 for eth_getLogs on Polygon	Yes, 400,000 response units daily	Dedicated nodes, pay-as-you-go	Archive on every plan, Trace API from Growth	Substrate coverage, indexer hosting
4	NOWNodes	Request-count plans and Blockbook, with one key across 120+ networks	Plans sized by monthly requests, 100,000 (Start) to 100M (Enterprise)	Yes, Start plan, one month, 100,000 requests, no card	Custom plans, quoted by sales	Archive on 45+ networks at no extra charge, Polygon included; Debug API	120+ networks, Blockbook, no RPS limits on paid plans
5	Quicknode	Streams and Webhooks next to RPC, on credit plans instead of a daily quota	Credits with a per-chain multiplier, 20 per call on Polygon	1-month trial, 10M credits, 15 RPS	Dedicated Clusters on Enterprise	Archive on every plan; trace and debug from Build	75+ chains, Streams, Webhooks, SOC 2 and ISO 27001

Official pricing pages: Infura, Chainstack, Dwellir, OnFinality, NOWNodes, Quicknode.

True cost per call = (method’s unit weight x price per million units) / 1,000,000. Here it is for eth_getLogs on Polygon at each provider’s entry paid plan, using the included allowance in full.

Provider	Unit weight for eth_getLogs	Entry paid plan	Cost per 1M calls
Infura (for reference)	255 credits (Ethereum value; Polygon has no entry)	Developer, $50 with 15M credits a day, no overage rate	$28.33 if the full daily quota is used every day of a 30-day month ($25.50 on Team)
Chainstack	1 RU, 2 RU if fromBlock is 127 or more blocks behind the tip	Growth, $49 with 20M RU, $15 per extra 1M RU	$2.45 in allowance ($2.00 annual; archive $4.90 and $4.00), $15 at overage ($30 archive)
Dwellir	1 credit, 500-block range per call	Developer, $49 with 25M responses, $5 per extra 1M	$1.96 in allowance, $5.00 at overage
OnFinality	3 response units on Polygon	Growth, $49 plus node and API usage costs, 20M units, $6 per extra 1M	$7.35 in allowance, $18.00 at overage
NOWNodes	Not found on its pricing page	Pro, EUR 20 with 1M requests, no overage rate listed	EUR 20.00 on Pro; EUR 9.00 in the Pro Plus allowance (EUR 90 for 10M), EUR 50 at overage
Quicknode	20 credits on Polygon	Build, $49 with 80M credits (monthly billing), $0.62 per extra 1M	$12.25 in allowance, $12.40 at overage

Among the dollar-priced plans, Dwellir has the lowest figure both inside the allowance ($1.96) and at overage ($5.00), and Chainstack is second inside the allowance ($2.45). Infura’s $28.33 reflects the 255-credit weight on a quota that resets daily, so $28.33 is the lowest possible Developer figure, because unused daily credits expire.

Sources: each provider’s pricing and method-cost pages (Dwellir’s checked on October 15, 2026) and Chainstack request units. Infura’s 255 credits come from the Ethereum table, which its docs apply to networks without their own entry. eth_getLogs block-range caps on Polygon: Chainstack 100 on Developer and 10,000 on Growth and above, Dwellir not available on Free, 500 on Developer and 10,000 on Growth and Scale, Quicknode 5 on the trial and 10,000 on paid plans, none stated for Infura (its docs cap a query at 10,000 results and 10 seconds), none found for OnFinality or NOWNodes. Model your own mix with the interactive cost calculator.

Performance proof: Chainstack RPC benchmark reports

Chainstack publishes RPC benchmark reports for Ethereum, BNB Chain, Hyperliquid and Arc (September and October 2026) that rank Chainstack, Quicknode, Alchemy and dRPC. Disclosure: Chainstack runs the monitoring service, the dashboard and the scoring formula, and is one of the four ranked providers. Data comes from Chainstack Compare: a rolling 7-day window, probes from DE, US and SG (JP instead of SG for Hyperliquid), each provider on its first paid plan in the October editions (the September editions use a standard shared endpoint). Score is p95 response time divided by the success rate cubed, so lower is better.

Infura, Dwellir, OnFinality and NOWNodes are not in any of the reports, and Quicknode is the only alternative that appears. No Chainstack report covers Polygon, the example chain here, so the figures below measure other chains. The images are the October 2026 editions, published October 8, 2026, each linking to its report: Ethereum, BNB Chain and Hyperliquid. The Arc report of the same date, the fourth chain, scores Chainstack 0.059, Quicknode 0.096, Alchemy 0.173 and dRPC 0.181.

Ethereum, 7-day window ending October 8, 2026:

Ethereum scores: Chainstack 0.079, Quicknode 0.097, Alchemy 0.114, dRPC 0.670.

BNB Chain, 7-day window ending October 8, 2026:

BNB Chain scores: Chainstack 0.087, Alchemy 0.135, Quicknode 0.136, dRPC 0.200.

Hyperliquid, 7-day window ending October 8, 2026:

Hyperliquid scores: Chainstack 0.019, Alchemy 0.036, Quicknode 0.065, dRPC 0.124.

Chainstack has the best score on all four chains, and the reports show where it does not lead (on Arc, Alchemy and Quicknode tie for the lowest DE P95 at 21 ms, Alchemy has the lowest US P95 and dRPC the lowest median):

• Ethereum, DE and US traffic. Quicknode has the lowest DE P95 (40 ms against 47 ms) and Alchemy the lowest US P95 (80 ms against 143 ms for Chainstack).
• BNB Chain, median and tail. Alchemy has the lowest P50 (32 ms), and Quicknode (193 ms) and Alchemy (222 ms) have a lower P99 than Chainstack (270 ms).
• Hyperliquid, availability. Chainstack’s 99.74% is the lowest in the set (Alchemy and dRPC 100.00%, Quicknode 99.98%), which the report says costs about 0.8% of score and does not change the ranking.

The September 2026 editions (Ethereum, BNB Chain, Hyperliquid and Arc) ranked the same four providers with Chainstack first. The October reports state their limits: one 7-day window, the entry paid plan only, synthetic probes from three cloud regions, and no measurement of throughput under load, correctness or cost. Chainstack chose the formula, so another formula could reorder close pairs.

Top 5 Infura alternatives and what each is best for

1. Chainstack

Best for: Archive and trace on a fixed monthly plan instead of daily credit quotas, with SOC 2 Type II and ISO 27001.

Chainstack is a managed node provider across 70+ blockchains that bills flat request units: 1 RU for a full request and 2 RU for archive, debug and trace requests on Global Nodes, with no per-method multipliers. The free Developer plan includes 3M RU and 25 RPS with no card required, and Growth is $49 a month ($40 billed annually) with 20M RU, 250 RPS, archive data and debug and trace APIs, per the pricing page.

Archive is not a separate endpoint: on Global Nodes each request is classified on its own, so a call within 126 blocks of the tip is 1 RU and an older block 2 RU. The Polygon RPC Global Node offers full, archive and debug and trace on mainnet and Amoy, and as Polygon runs the Bor client, which has no Erigon-style trace_ methods, tracing uses debug_trace methods with flatCallTracer at 2 RU. Paid plans keep serving past the quota at the overage rate ($15 per 1M RU on Growth) while extra usage is enabled. Dedicated Nodes start at the Pro plan ($199 a month) plus compute (from $0.50 an hour) and storage. The Unlimited Node add-on is the fixed-RPS option, from $149 a month at 25 RPS on top of the Growth plan or higher. Chainstack holds SOC 2 Type II and ISO 27001, and its Enterprise SLA page states a 99.9% quarterly uptime commitment with service credits.

Limitations: The free plan includes 3M RU a month (extra usage is optional at $20 per 1M RU, otherwise services stop at the quota), has no archive or debug and trace, and limits eth_getLogs to 100 blocks, while Infura’s free Core plan lists archive data. On Polygon, Chainstack’s catalog lists an archive node at $4,234 a month ($2.00 an hour for compute plus $3.80 an hour for storage over 730 hours, plus the Pro plan) and a full node (Bor) at $3,839.80 (also on the Pro plan or higher), while Dwellir lists an archive cluster at $12,600 and no full-node price, and its price covers a redundant multi-node cluster with a 99.99% SLA where Chainstack’s is one node. Growth overage of $15 per 1M RU is above the $5 per 1M responses on Dwellir’s Developer plan ($49), so very high volume suits a custom Pay As You Go plan (from $2.5 per 1M RU, arranged with sales) or an Unlimited Node.

Fit by workload:

• Archive, debug and trace on one fixed meter: Excellent, since a debug_traceTransaction call costs a flat 2 RU on Polygon Global Nodes with 20M RU included for $49.
• Procurement that asks for audit reports or isolated nodes: Strong, with SOC 2 Type II and ISO 27001 published and Dedicated Nodes from Pro.

2. Dwellir

Best for: One flat credit per response and public dedicated cluster prices.

Dwellir is a multi-chain RPC provider covering 150+ networks by its own count, billed at one credit per response with no compute units, even for trace and debug. Its pricing page lists Developer at $49 a month with 25M responses and 100 RPS, Growth at $299 with 150M and Scale at $999 with 500M responses (up to 5,000 RPS), plus a Free plan (100,000 daily responses).

Extra responses cost $5, $3 and $2 per 1M on Developer, Growth and Scale. Unlimited Nodes are the fixed-RPS option, from $119 a month at 25 RPS. Dedicated Node Clusters are redundant archive clusters with no request counting and a 99.99% uptime SLA, listed from $2,400 a month, with Polygon at $12,600 (a list price, final quote by regions and cluster size).

Limitations: The free plan has no eth_getLogs, trace or debug access, the $49 Developer plan limits log queries to 500 blocks (10,000 on Growth), and we found no published SOC 2 Type II or ISO 27001. On Polygon its standard endpoints run full nodes and its Polygon page points historical queries to dedicated archive options, and the Chainstack benchmark does not include Dwellir.

Fit by workload:

• A flat per-response meter: Excellent, since a trace call costs the same credit as a balance read.
• Polygon history on a shared plan: Limited, because its Polygon page lists archive through dedicated options.

3. OnFinality

Best for: Paid plans with no daily limit, plus indexer hosting and dedicated nodes.

OnFinality is a multi-chain node service whose homepage lists 130+ networks (a heading on the same page says 90+), with RPC APIs, dedicated nodes and indexing. Its pricing page lists a free Developer plan with 400,000 response units a day and Growth at $49 a month with 20M units ($6 per extra million).

Archive access is listed on every plan, paid plans list no daily response limit, the Trace API starts at Growth, and dedicated nodes are pay-as-you-go. On Polygon most methods are 1 response unit, but eth_getLogs is 3 and debug_traceTransaction 30, with debug on paid plans and its trace_ methods marked coming soon.

Limitations: Response-unit weights make heavy methods cost more than the headline suggests. Paid plans list node and API usage costs on top of the monthly fee, its pricing page lists per-network dedicated node prices (a Polygon full node at $2,307 a month), we found no published SOC 2 Type II or ISO 27001, and the Chainstack benchmark does not cover OnFinality.

Fit by workload:

• Substrate and Polkadot-ecosystem teams: Strong, since its tooling targets Substrate networks and it hosts indexers.
• Monthly volume with no daily stop: Good, because paid plans list no daily response limit.

4. NOWNodes

Best for: Request-count plans and Blockbook, with one key across 120+ networks.

NOWNodes is a multi-chain node provider that lists 120+ networks, with shared and dedicated nodes, WebSocket, gRPC, Blockbook and a Trace and Debug API. Shared plans are sized by monthly requests: Start with 100,000 (free for one month, 15 RPS, any 5 networks), Pro 1M, Pro Plus 10M, Business 30M, Business Plus 50M and Enterprise 100M.

Plans are priced in euros: Pro EUR 20 a month, Pro Plus EUR 90, Business EUR 200, Business Plus EUR 300 and Enterprise EUR 500. Overage per 100,000 requests is EUR 5 on Pro Plus, EUR 1 on Business and Business Plus and EUR 0.5 on Enterprise. Its archive page lists archive access on 45+ networks at no extra charge, with Polygon among them, and its docs list the Debug API for Polygon in shared mode. Its pages state no RPS limits on paid plans and a 99.95% uptime SLA; its pricing page shows dedicated nodes as custom, while its dedicated-nodes page says they can be bought from the dashboard after registration.

Limitations: Prices are in euros, so its per-call figures are not converted here. Archive is available on selected networks only (45+ of 120+), the free plan lasts one month, and Polygon is listed under Debug API only, not Trace. Its pricing table lists no overage for Start and Pro, while its FAQ says over-limit usage is invoiced. We found no published SOC 2 Type II or ISO 27001, and the Chainstack benchmark does not cover NOWNodes.

Fit by workload:

• Plans sized by request count: Good, since allowances are listed in requests and we found no per-method weights.
• Teams that outgrew a daily credit quota: Strong, because paid plans state no RPS limits and bill by monthly request count.

5. Quicknode

Best for: Streams and Webhooks next to RPC, on credit plans instead of a daily quota.

Quicknode lists 75+ chains, bundles Streams and Webhooks with its node product and sells credits weighted per chain. Its pricing page lists a one-month free trial (10M credits, 15 RPS, no card) and Build at $49 a month with 80M credits and 50 RPS.

On Polygon and most EVM chains every method is 20 credits, and trace and debug carry a 2x multiplier. Archive data is on every plan, trace and debug are listed from Build, and Dedicated Clusters are listed only on Enterprise. Its security page states SOC 2 Type 2 and ISO/IEC 27001.

Limitations: The free entry is a trial, not a standing plan, and during the trial eth_getLogs is limited to 5 blocks per call. A million 20-credit Polygon calls cost $12.25 inside Build’s allowance, and at its $0.62 overage rate a 40-credit trace call is about $24.80 per million. In the Hyperliquid benchmark, Quicknode’s P95 is 76 ms against 22 ms for Chainstack.

Fit by workload:

• RPC plus data streams from one vendor: Strong, with Streams and Webhooks beside the node product.
• Ethereum reads from Germany: Strong: Quicknode posted the lowest DE P95 (40 ms) in the October Ethereum benchmark.

How to migrate from Infura to Chainstack

Most migrations are an endpoint swap plus a testing pass, and a coding agent can run the assessment from the Chainstack MCP migration runbook.

1. Assess endpoints and usage. List every Infura API key (it sits in the URL path, and some also use a key secret or JWT), its network and the methods and subscriptions you use. The dashboard breaks credit usage down by method.
2. Deploy a node. Create a project and deploy a node per network, starting with Global Nodes and adding Dedicated Nodes for isolation or an Unlimited Node for a fixed RPS cap.
3. Swap the endpoint URL. Replace the Infura URLs and any secret or JWT headers with your Chainstack endpoints behind a config flag.
4. Test methods. Run your real mix: eth_getLogs ranges (100 blocks on the Developer plan, 10,000 on Growth and above), historical eth_call, debug and trace calls and subscriptions.
5. Compare cost. Divide a billing period of Infura credits by the credit weight (80 for most calls, 255 for eth_getLogs) to get calls, and price them on the pricing page at 1 RU, or 2 RU for state and log calls 127 or more blocks behind the tip and for debug and trace.
6. Cut over gradually. Shift a share of traffic, then move the rest.

Getting started with Chainstack

Deploy a Polygon endpoint in a few steps:

1. Log in to the Chainstack console (or create an account).
2. Create a new project
3. Select Polygon as your blockchain protocol
4. Choose network: Polygon Mainnet or Amoy testnet
5. Deploy the node
6. Open Access and credentials and copy your HTTPS and WebSocket endpoints

Then connect with web3.py and read the latest 100 blocks of logs for a contract (the Developer plan limit). Replace YOUR_CONTRACT_ADDRESS with the checksummed address of a contract you follow:

from web3 import Web3

web3 = Web3(Web3.HTTPProvider('YOUR_CHAINSTACK_ENDPOINT'))
latest = web3.eth.block_number
print(latest)

logs = web3.eth.get_logs({
    "fromBlock": latest - 99,
    "toBlock": latest,
    "address": "YOUR_CONTRACT_ADDRESS",
})
print(len(logs))

Need testnet POL? Grab some from the Chainstack Polygon Amoy faucet.

📖 For the full integration guide, see the Chainstack Polygon tooling documentation.

🤖 You can also access Chainstack Polygon RPC directly from Claude, Cursor, Codex, Gemini CLI, GitHub Copilot or ChatGPT using Chainstack MCP, or see the Chainstack Agents page.

Conclusion

The deciding question when you leave Infura is how you want usage metered: per-method credits against a daily quota, or a flat meter, response units, request counts or a per-response credit. Infura remains a fit for teams that want MetaMask Connect integration and archive data on a free plan.

• Archive and trace on a fixed monthly plan, with audit reports: Chainstack, with flat 2 RU archive and trace billing, Dedicated Nodes, SOC 2 Type II and ISO 27001.
• A flat per-response credit and public dedicated cluster prices: Dwellir.
• Substrate, Polkadot, indexer hosting and no daily response limit: OnFinality.
• Request-count plans, Blockbook and a one-month free start: NOWNodes.
• RPC plus data streams from one vendor: Quicknode.

Frequently asked questions

Q: What is the cheapest Infura alternative?

For eth_getLogs on Polygon, a million calls cost $2.45 on Chainstack Growth inside the plan allowance, $1.96 on Dwellir Developer (which caps ranges at 500 blocks), $7.35 on OnFinality, EUR 20 on NOWNodes Pro (billed in euros, not converted) and $12.25 on Quicknode, against $28.33 on Infura Developer at full daily use. Model your own mix with the cost calculator.

Q: Is there a free alternative to Infura’s free plan?

Yes. Chainstack’s Developer plan offers 3M RU a month and 25 RPS, Dwellir 100,000 responses a day and OnFinality 400,000 response units a day, while NOWNodes and Quicknode offer one-month trials. Infura’s Core plan gives 3M credits a day, about 37,500 standard calls a day at up to 6 a second, with archive data that Chainstack’s Developer plan lacks.

Q: How do I migrate from Infura to Chainstack?

Inventory your Infura keys and methods, deploy a node per network, swap the endpoint, test heavy methods and compare cost. The migration runbook lets a coding agent handle the assessment.

Q: Which provider is fastest according to benchmarks?

In the Chainstack October 2026 reports, Chainstack has the best score on Ethereum, BNB Chain, Hyperliquid and Arc, while Quicknode has the lowest DE P95 on Ethereum (40 ms) and a lower BNB Chain P99 (193 ms against 270 ms). Chainstack runs the benchmark and is ranked in it; Infura, Dwellir, OnFinality and NOWNodes are not covered.

Q: Which alternatives publish SOC 2 Type II and ISO 27001?

Chainstack publishes SOC 2 Type II and ISO 27001. We found neither for Dwellir, OnFinality or NOWNodes, so request reports from each vendor. Quicknode’s security page states SOC 2 Type 2 and ISO/IEC 27001. Consensys’s security page, which does not name Infura, lists ISO 27001:2022 for Consensys and SOC 2 reports for other products.

Q: What happens when I use up my quota?

Infura halts traffic for the rest of the UTC day once the daily credit quota is spent. On paid Chainstack plans requests continue at the overage rate ($15 per 1M RU on Growth) with extra usage enabled, Dwellir bills extra responses at $5, $3 or $2 per 1M by plan, OnFinality lists no daily limit on paid plans, NOWNodes lists overage per 100,000 requests from EUR 5 on Pro Plus down to EUR 0.5 on Enterprise (no rate is listed for Start or Pro, and its FAQ says over-limit usage is invoiced at the end of the billing cycle), and Quicknode sells extra credits at $0.62 per 1M on Build. A fixed-RPS plan avoids quotas: Chainstack’s Unlimited Node starts at $149 for 25 RPS on top of Growth ($49) or higher, and Dwellir’s Unlimited Nodes at $119.

Additional resources

• How to get a Polygon RPC endpoint in 2026
• Chainstack RPC benchmark reports
• Polygon methods — Chainstack Docs
• Debug and trace APIs — Chainstack Docs
• Request units — Chainstack Docs
• Polygon PoS documentation