Flat-rate RPC plans compared: pricing, limits, and trade-offs (2026)

The era of “pay-as-you-go sounds cheaper than it is” has reached RPC infrastructure. In 2026, credit-based billing models have started showing their cracks for production teams: a single bad batch job, a debug trace run, or a WebSocket subscription storm can turn a predictable monthly budget into a surprise invoice. For teams building anything beyond a weekend project, the billing model is at least as important as the endpoint’s raw performance.

Quick verdict: which flat-rate RPC plan fits which workload

The best flat-rate plan depends on how many chains you need and at what RPS. This is a use-case comparison of three priced products, not a ranked list. Chainstack publishes this page and sells one of the three (Unlimited Node), so check the figures against the official pricing pages linked below. Prices were checked October 29, 2026 from each vendor’s own page; where a figure could not be read it is marked as such. The use-case picks, drawn from the comparison matrix on this page:

• Best for multi-chain workloads (3 or more chains): Chainstack Unlimited Node. One subscription covers all Chainstack chains in one shared RPS pool, while Quicknode and GetBlock bill per chain. Check the shared-pool caveat under the cost scenarios.
• Best for throughput above 300 RPS: Chainstack Unlimited Node (tiers up to 1000 RPS). Quicknode self-serve tiers stop at 250 RPS and GetBlock lists 300 RPS as its top tier.
• Best for a single chain at 25 RPS: Chainstack and GetBlock have essentially equal entry prices ($149/month for Chainstack, from $150/month for GetBlock). Quicknode starts at $799/month for 75 RPS on EVM chains.
• Best for teams already on a paid Quicknode plan with one EVM chain or Solana: Quicknode Flat Rate RPS, which has the highest entry price of the three.
• Best for archive data on one chain: GetBlock offers a Full or Archive mode in its configurator (archive is shown on individual chain cards such as Ethereum and Base); Quicknode includes archive only where available and Chainstack archive depends on the base plan. Confirm archive support for your chain.
• Compliance: all three state SOC 2 Type II (GetBlock on its own page header); the matrix also lists ISO 27001 for Chainstack and Quicknode and a contractual SLA for Chainstack (Enterprise plan only).

No latency benchmark applies to this comparison: flat-rate plans are compared here on price, limits and coverage, not on measured performance. See how we compared and price verification.

Three providers now offer flat-rate RPC options — and they work very differently. Chainstack’s Unlimited Node add-on is a chain-agnostic flat-rate pool starting at $149/month on Growth plans and above, covering all supported chains under one subscription. Quicknode’s Flat Rate RPS (launched March 2026) is an endpoint-level option starting at $799/month — one chain, one region per subscription. GetBlock’s Limitless Node starts from $150/month with 25 to 300 RPS tiers and an archive mode (GetBlock’s page, checked October 29, 2026), but also locks each subscription to a single chain.

This guide compares all three flat-rate offerings directly: pricing tiers, chain coverage, archive access, and the cost scenarios where each wins.

💡 Already using Chainstack? Head to the Unlimited Node marketplace page to add flat-rate RPC to your existing plan in minutes.

Why flat-rate matters — and where credit billing breaks down

Credit-weighted billing creates a hidden variable that many teams only discover after their first production billing cycle: not all RPC calls cost the same number of credits. Methods like debug_traceTransaction or eth_getLogs with large block ranges consume 2–4× more credits than a simple eth_blockNumber. A workload that looks like 80M method calls on paper can easily exhaust a credit budget twice that size in practice, triggering overage charges — and on Quicknode’s credit-based plans, overages above $200 trigger immediate billing mid-cycle.

All three flat-rate options solve this by decoupling billing from method calls entirely: you pay for RPS capacity, not per request. The criteria that separate them:

• Chain coverage — all chains on one plan, or one chain per subscription?
• Archive access — included or requires a separate plan tier?
• Regional flexibility — multi-region on one subscription, or locked to one?
• Entry price point — minimum commitment for production-grade throughput
• Max RPS available — ceiling for high-throughput workloads

Comparison table

The table below summarizes all three flat-rate offerings. Chainstack, Quicknode and GetBlock prices and tiers were checked October 29, 2026 against the vendors’ own pages; other rows are carried over from May 2026 and are listed under price verification.

Feature	Chainstack Unlimited Node	Quicknode Flat Rate RPS	GetBlock Limitless Node
Pricing model	Flat-rate (RPS-based)	Flat-rate (RPS-based)	Flat-rate (RPS-based)
Starting price	$149/month (25 RPS)	$799/month (75 RPS, EVM)	From $150/month (25 RPS tier)
RPS options	25 / 100 / 250 / 500 / 1000	75 / 150 / 250	25 / 50 / 150 / 300
Overage behavior	HTTP 429, no charge	HTTP 429, no charge	HTTP 429, no charge
Chain coverage	All Chainstack chains	EVM (6 chains) + Solana	11 chains
Multi-chain on one plan	Yes	No — 1 chain per subscription	No — 1 chain per subscription
Regions	All Chainstack regions	1 region per subscription	EU, US, Asia
Archive access	Plan-dependent	Where available; heavy archive queries may hit limits (Quicknode docs)	Archive mode offered (shown on chain cards such as Ethereum and Base)
Method weighting	None	None	None
Max RPS	1000	250 self-serve (higher through Quicknode sales)	300
SOC 2 Type II and ISO 27001	Yes	Yes	SOC 2 Type II stated on GetBlock’s page
Requires base plan	Growth or higher	Any paid Quicknode plan	Standalone
Annual discount	Via base plan	Not documented	20% (annual billing toggle)
Best for	Multi-chain workloads, above 300 RPS	Existing Quicknode customers on one EVM chain or Solana	Single chain from $150/month, archive mode

Chainstack Unlimited Node

The Unlimited Node add-on attaches to any Chainstack plan on Growth or higher. Rather than consuming RUs from your monthly base allocation, requests through an Unlimited Node endpoint consume zero plan quota and draw from a dedicated flat-rate capacity pool. Every call to every method costs the same: nothing beyond the monthly subscription fee.

Chainstack offers five Unlimited Node tiers (prices checked October 29, 2026 on chainstack.com/pricing; the 1000 RPS tier is listed in the documentation with pricing through sales):

• 25 RPS — $149/month
• 100 RPS — $649/month
• 250 RPS — $1,649/month
• 500 RPS — $3,199/month
• 1000 RPS — contact Chainstack for pricing

The main operational difference is chain coverage. A single Unlimited Node subscription covers all Chainstack-supported chains — Ethereum, Solana, BNB Smart Chain, Arbitrum, Base, Polygon, TON, TRON, and more — with no per-chain surcharge and no regional restriction. A multi-chain pipeline hitting three networks simultaneously draws from the same RPS pool on one invoice.

The add-on can be combined with Chainstack’s Dedicated Nodes for teams that need private archive infrastructure alongside flat-rate shared throughput. The underlying infrastructure is SOC 2 Type II and ISO 27001 certified.

Limitations: Archive node access is governed by the underlying Chainstack plan, not the Unlimited Node add-on itself. Teams requiring debug_traceTransaction or historical state queries should pair this with a plan that includes archive access, or use Dedicated Nodes.

Verdict: Chainstack Unlimited Node fits multi-chain workloads and throughput above 300 RPS; its trade-offs are archive access that depends on the base plan and a Growth-or-higher plan requirement. Official pricing: Chainstack pricing and Unlimited Node page.

Quicknode Flat Rate RPS

Quicknode Flat Rate RPS is an endpoint-level billing option launched in March 2026 (Quicknode’s documentation gives March 4, 2026), available on any paid Quicknode plan. It replaces credit metering for a specific endpoint with a fixed monthly fee. Requests are not counted — exceeding the RPS cap returns HTTP 429 with no overage charge.

Pricing breaks down by chain family (all six prices checked October 29, 2026 against Quicknode’s documentation):

• EVM chains (Ethereum, Base, Optimism, Arbitrum, BSC, Polygon): 75 RPS at $799/month | 150 RPS at $1,499/month | 250 RPS at $1,949/month
• Solana: 75 RPS at $1,199/month | 150 RPS at $2,299/month | 250 RPS at $2,925/month

Each subscription covers exactly one endpoint on one blockchain in one region. Chains outside the six supported EVM networks and Solana — including TON, TRON, Sui, and most newer L2s — are not available under Flat Rate RPS and remain credit-billed.

Limitations: The entry price of $799/month for 75 RPS is the steepest of the three providers. Multi-chain coverage requires separate subscriptions per chain. Quicknode’s documentation (checked October 29, 2026) says archive access is included only where available and that heavy archive queries, such as large eth_getLogs ranges or debug and trace methods, may hit concurrency limits quickly. The same documentation lists the product as running on shared Pro infrastructure with no SLA and routes tiers above 250 RPS through Quicknode sales.

Verdict: Quicknode Flat Rate RPS fits teams already on a paid Quicknode plan that need one EVM chain or Solana; its trade-offs are the highest entry price, one chain per subscription and limited archive use. Official pricing: Quicknode Flat Rate RPS documentation.

GetBlock Limitless Node

GetBlock Limitless Node is a standalone flat-rate offering. Its page (checked October 29, 2026) says plans start from $150/month, which is within a dollar of Chainstack’s $149/month entry price. Like Quicknode, each subscription covers a single chain, but GetBlock’s supported chain list is broader (11 chains) and includes non-EVM chains that Quicknode Flat Rate RPS does not cover.

Tiers and prices as shown on GetBlock’s page on October 29, 2026:

• 25 RPS — plans start from $150/month; a separate price for this tier is not shown on the static page
• 50 RPS — $300/month in the pricing widget
• 150 RPS — price shown in GetBlock’s configurator; not read
• 300 RPS — price shown in GetBlock’s configurator; not read

GetBlock’s page has a Monthly/Annually toggle with “20%” next to Annually. The page does not make clear whether $150 and $300 are the monthly or the annual-billed prices, so this article does not treat them as either. The page text also still says “Up to 200 RPS” in its introduction while listing a 300 RPS tier, so confirm the top tier with GetBlock before planning above 200 RPS.

Supported chains (GetBlock’s list of 11): Ethereum, Solana, Bitcoin, BNB Smart Chain, Base, Polygon, TRON, Arbitrum, Avalanche, Optimism and Sui. GetBlock’s pricing selector also shows other chains, including TON, but they are not in that list of 11.

GetBlock lets you choose a Full or Archive mode in its pricing configurator, and its chain cards show archive for Ethereum and Base. The page does not state archive availability per tier or per chain in full, so confirm it for your chain. Multi-region routing across EU, US and Asia is included per subscription. GetBlock advertises 24/7 support with under 5-minute response time, and states on its page that it is SOC 2 Type II compliant.

Limitations: The 150 and 300 RPS tier prices are not readable on the static page, which makes cost planning above 50 RPS harder to verify; the page is inconsistent about its maximum RPS; and the single-chain-per-subscription model means multi-chain teams pay per chain, just as with Quicknode.

Verdict: GetBlock Limitless Node fits single-chain workloads from about the same entry price as Chainstack and teams that want an archive mode or Bitcoin; its trade-offs are per-chain billing and tier prices above 50 RPS that must be confirmed with GetBlock. Official pricing: GetBlock Limitless Node.

Where each flat-rate option wins

Use case	Chainstack Unlimited Node	Quicknode Flat Rate RPS	GetBlock Limitless Node
Multi-chain indexer (3+ chains)	✅ One subscription covers all	❌ Separate sub per chain	❌ Separate sub per chain
Single chain at 25 RPS	✅ $149/mo	❌ $799/mo minimum (75 RPS)	✅ From $150/mo
Single-chain EVM, 100 RPS	✅ $649/mo	⚠️ $1,499/mo (150 RPS tier)	⚠️ No 100 RPS tier; 150 RPS tier price not read
Solana-only workload (75 RPS)	✅ $649/mo (100 RPS tier)	⚠️ $1,199/mo (75 RPS)	⚠️ 150 RPS tier price not read
Archive access needed	⚠️ Requires paid base plan	⚠️ Where available; heavy queries may hit limits	✅ Archive mode offered (confirm per chain)
Non-EVM chains (TON, TRON)	✅ Covered	❌ Not on flat-rate	⚠️ TRON in its 11-chain list; TON only in its pricing selector
Bitcoin RPC flat-rate	❌ Not supported	❌ Not supported	✅ Supported
Above 250 RPS	✅ Up to 1000 RPS	❌ 250 RPS self-serve (higher through sales)	✅ 300 RPS tier (price not read)
Multi-region on one plan	✅ All regions	❌ 1 region per sub	✅ EU, US, Asia included
SOC 2 compliance	✅ SOC 2 Type II	✅ SOC 2 Type II + ISO 27001	✅ SOC 2 Type II (stated on its page)
Already on Quicknode	⚠️ Requires migration	✅ Add to existing plan	⚠️ Requires migration

Cost scenarios: the math side by side

All figures use list prices checked October 29, 2026 from each vendor’s page. Each cell is the list price of the smallest tier that covers the stated RPS, multiplied by the number of chains where the provider bills per chain. Chainstack bills one shared RPS pool across chains, so its figure is one tier price. Cells marked “cannot be computed” depend on GetBlock tier prices that its page does not show. Annual discounts and base-plan fees are not included.

Scenario	Quicknode Flat Rate RPS	GetBlock Limitless Node	Chainstack Unlimited Node
1 EVM chain, 25 RPS	$799/mo (75 RPS minimum)	From $150/mo	$149/mo
1 EVM chain, 100 RPS	$1,499/mo (150 RPS tier)	Cannot be computed (no 100 RPS tier; 150 RPS price not read)	$649/mo
3 EVM chains, 100 RPS each	$4,497/mo (3×$1,499)	Cannot be computed	$649/mo if the three chains share 100 RPS (see caveat)
3 EVM chains + Solana, 100 RPS each	$6,796/mo (3×$1,499 + $2,299 for Solana 150 RPS tier)	Cannot be computed	$649/mo if the four chains share 100 RPS (see caveat)
5 EVM chains, 250 RPS each	$9,745/mo (5×$1,949)	Cannot be computed (300 RPS tier price not read)	$1,649/mo if the five chains share 250 RPS (see caveat)
Single chain, need archive	Where available; heavy queries may hit limits; no separate archive price	Archive mode price not read	$649/mo at 100 RPS plus an archive-capable base plan

Caveat on the multi-chain rows: Chainstack Unlimited Node RPS is a shared pool, so the Chainstack figures assume the chains together stay within the stated RPS. If three chains each need 100 RPS at the same time (300 RPS in total), the 500 RPS tier at $3,199/month applies, which is still below the Quicknode figure ($4,497/month). If five chains each need 250 RPS at the same time (1,250 RPS in total), the figure is beyond the 1000 RPS tier, which is priced through Chainstack sales. This table also corrects an earlier Quicknode figure for the Solana scenario: Quicknode’s Solana tier covering 100 RPS is the 150 RPS tier at $2,299/month.

Getting started with Chainstack Unlimited Node

The Unlimited Node add-on requires a Chainstack Growth plan or higher:

1. Log in to Chainstack or create an account and upgrade to Growth
2. Navigate to the Marketplace and select Unlimited Node
3. Choose your RPS tier (25, 100, 250, 500, or 1000 RPS)
4. Create a project and deploy a node on any supported chain
5. Copy your HTTP or WebSocket endpoint

Once live, all requests draw from the flat-rate pool — no per-chain accounting, no method multipliers, zero impact on your base plan quota:

# Ethereum — latest block
curl -s -X POST https://your-ethereum-endpoint.chainstack.com
  -H "Content-Type: application/json"
  -d '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","method":"eth_blockNumber","params":[],"id":1}'

# BNB Smart Chain — same subscription, same RPS pool, no separate charge
curl -s -X POST https://your-bnb-endpoint.chainstack.com
  -H "Content-Type: application/json"
  -d '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","method":"eth_blockNumber","params":[],"id":1}'

🤖 You can also access Chainstack RPC directly from Claude, Cursor, Codex, Gemini, or Windsurf using Chainstack MCP. Learn more about Chainstack MCP.

Price verification (checked October 29, 2026)

Each figure was compared with the vendor’s own page on October 29, 2026. Figures that could not be read are marked as such, and no number was estimated.

Provider	Figure	Status on October 29, 2026
Chainstack Unlimited Node	$149 / $649 / $1,649 / $3,199 per month for 25 / 100 / 250 / 500 RPS; Growth plan or higher	Confirmed on the pricing page (entry price and tier prices) and the Unlimited Node page (from $149/month).
Chainstack Unlimited Node	1000 RPS tier; zero plan quota and no overage	Listed in the documentation; priced through Chainstack sales.
Quicknode Flat Rate RPS	EVM: $799 / $1,499 / $1,949 for 75 / 150 / 250 RPS; Solana: $1,199 / $2,299 / $2,925	Confirmed in the Quicknode documentation; all six prices match. The documentation also lists US East, EU Central and APAC NE regions, no overage charges, and higher tiers through sales.
Quicknode Flat Rate RPS	Archive access	The documentation says archive is included where available, with possible concurrency limits for heavy queries.
GetBlock Limitless Node	Plans from $150/month; 25 / 50 / 150 / 300 RPS tiers; 11 chains; 24/7 support under 5 minutes; SOC 2 Type II statement; 20% annual toggle	Read on the GetBlock page.
GetBlock Limitless Node	50 RPS tier	$300/month shown in the pricing widget.
GetBlock Limitless Node	150 and 300 RPS tier prices; whether $150 and $300 are monthly or annual-billed prices; archive availability per chain and tier	Not read: shown in GetBlock’s configurator or not stated. The page also says “Up to 200 RPS” in its introduction while listing a 300 RPS tier.
All three	Quicknode SOC 2 / ISO 27001 status, Quicknode single-region and base-plan requirement, Quicknode credit-overage rule, GetBlock overage behavior, Chainstack SOC 2 / ISO 27001 status	Not rechecked; carried over from the May 2026 article.

How we compared flat-rate RPC plans

Disclosure: this comparison is published by Chainstack, which sells Unlimited Node, one of the three products compared. The use-case picks are editorial judgment drawn from the figures on this page.

Criteria. The three products are compared on chain coverage, archive access, regional flexibility, entry price, maximum RPS, overage behavior, certifications and base-plan requirements.

Cost scenarios. Each scenario uses list prices read from the vendor pages on October 29, 2026: the smallest tier that covers the stated RPS, multiplied by the number of chains where the provider bills per chain (Quicknode and GetBlock), and one tier price for Chainstack’s shared pool. A cell is marked “cannot be computed” when it depends on a price that was not readable. Annual discounts, base-plan fees and taxes are not included.

Sources. Prices and limits come from each vendor’s public pages, listed under additional resources. See price verification for what was confirmed and what was not.

Not covered. Credit-based plans, dedicated nodes and other providers that may also offer flat-rate or fixed-price RPC plans are outside this three-way comparison.

Latency data. No benchmark applies: flat-rate plans are priced here, not benchmarked, and this page makes no latency or uptime claims. To compare latency yourself, see how to measure RPC latency (P50, P95, P99).

Flat-rate RPC tiers and prices compared

List price per month at each RPS tier, checked October 29, 2026. None of the three products has a free tier in this comparison.

RPS tier	Chainstack Unlimited Node	Quicknode Flat Rate RPS (EVM)	Quicknode Flat Rate RPS (Solana)	GetBlock Limitless Node
25	$149	n/a	n/a	From $150 (tier price not shown separately)
50	n/a	n/a	n/a	$300
75	n/a	$799	$1,199	n/a
100	$649	n/a	n/a	n/a
150	n/a	$1,499	$2,299	Price not read
250	$1,649	$1,949	$2,925	n/a
300	n/a	n/a	n/a	Price not read
500	$3,199	n/a	n/a	n/a
1000	Contact Chainstack	n/a	n/a	n/a

Chainstack alternatives for flat-rate RPC

If Unlimited Node is not the right fit, these are the head-to-head differences with the other two products:

• Chainstack vs Quicknode Flat Rate RPS: Chainstack Unlimited Node starts at $149/month for 25 RPS and covers all Chainstack chains in one pool; Quicknode starts at $799/month for 75 RPS on EVM chains and bills one chain per subscription. Quicknode fits teams that already run on a paid Quicknode plan.
• Chainstack vs GetBlock Limitless Node: the entry prices are essentially equal ($149/month for Chainstack, from $150/month for GetBlock). GetBlock offers an archive mode and Bitcoin and bills per chain across 11 chains; Chainstack covers all its chains on one subscription and offers tiers up to 1000 RPS, against GetBlock’s 300 RPS top tier. GetBlock’s 150 and 300 RPS prices were not readable, so mid-range comparisons need a quote.

Conclusion

All three flat-rate options eliminate credit billing — the decision comes down to chain breadth, archive needs, and throughput ceiling.

• Multi-chain workloads at any scale → Chainstack Unlimited Node is the lower-cost option in the scenarios above, because one subscription covers all chains; the gap grows with each additional chain, subject to the shared-RPS caveat
• Single chain at 25 RPS → Chainstack ($149/month) and GetBlock (from $150/month) have essentially equal entry prices; Quicknode starts at $799/month
• Single-chain EVM or Solana, already on Quicknode → Quicknode Flat Rate RPS is the path of least resistance; compare it with GetBlock’s 150 RPS tier once GetBlock confirms that price
• Above 250 RPS → Chainstack Unlimited Node (up to 1000 RPS) or GetBlock (300 RPS tier, price not read); Quicknode self-serve tiers stop at 250 RPS
• Archive data on one chain → GetBlock’s archive mode or Chainstack with an archive-capable plan or Dedicated Nodes; confirm per chain
• Enterprise and compliance-required deployments → all three state SOC 2 Type II (Chainstack’s certification); Chainstack also offers a contractual SLA on its Enterprise plan, while Quicknode’s documentation lists the flat-rate product with no SLA

FAQ

Additional resources

• Chainstack Unlimited Node — marketplace page
• Chainstack Unlimited Node — docs
• Chainstack pricing plans
• Chainstack Dedicated Nodes
• Quicknode Flat Rate RPS documentation
• GetBlock Limitless Node
• Tutorials and guides on Chainstack Docs
• Chainstack SOC 2 Type II and ISO 27001 certification

Changelog

We review this comparison regularly so that the information stays accurate, clear, and easy to verify. This page was reviewed to improve how the comparison is structured and sourced.

• October 29, 2026: Re-verified pricing against the vendors’ own pages: Chainstack tier prices and Quicknode prices confirmed; GetBlock figures updated (plans from $150/month, 25 / 50 / 150 / 300 RPS tiers, 11 chains, archive mode, SOC 2 Type II statement), with unreadable tier prices marked. Updated the use-case matrix and cost scenarios, corrected Quicknode archive wording and one Quicknode Solana cost figure, and corrected vendor pricing, limits and certification details, and added a quick verdict, disclosure, “how we compared”, price verification, tier and price table, Chainstack alternatives, provider verdicts and a shared-RPS caveat.
• May 25, 2026: Original publication.