Top 7 Ink RPC Providers 2026: Pricing and Performance Comparison

A single DeFi action on Ink rarely costs one RPC call. A swap checks token balances, reads pool reserves, simulates the route, estimates gas, submits the transaction, and watches for the confirmation event. Multiply that across thousands of users on a chain producing a block every second, and your RPC provider becomes the bottleneck for your entire application.

Ink is Kraken's DeFi-focused Ethereum Layer 2, built on the OP Stack and connected to the Optimism Superchain. It launched in December 2024 with 1-second blocks, ETH for gas, and direct integration with Kraken's exchange. The public endpoints work for a demo, but they cap throughput at low rates and restrict the debug and trace methods that production DeFi depends on.

This comparison breaks down 7 RPC providers that support Ink mainnet today, with pricing normalized so you can make a direct cost comparison.

What Makes Ink Different for RPC

Ink is a standard OP Stack chain, which means full EVM and eth_* JSON-RPC compatibility. The differences that affect your RPC choice come from how Ink is used and how it settles.

DeFi density at 1-second blocks. Ink positions itself as the house of DeFi for the Superchain. DEXs, lending markets, and perps generate a dense mix of reads, event subscriptions, and trace calls per user action. A block every second adds up to roughly 86,400 blocks per day, and an indexer that falls behind on ingestion is hard to catch back up.

Optimistic rollup finality. Ink settles to Ethereum as an optimistic rollup with a 7-day challenge window for Standard Bridge withdrawals. Soft confirmation lands in about a second, but anything that proves or reconciles a withdrawal needs historical state at a specific block height. That makes archive node access a practical requirement, not a nice-to-have.

Superchain interoperability. Ink shares OP Stack standards and native bridging with the rest of the Superchain. Applications that span multiple Superchain L2s benefit from a provider that serves those chains consistently, so you are not stitching together different APIs and rate limits per network.

Restricted methods on public endpoints. Ink's public RPC endpoints whitelist methods. A call to debug_traceBlockByNumber on the public Gelato endpoint returns rpc method is not whitelisted. Trace and debug access on Ink means a paid plan from a provider that exposes those namespaces.

What to Look for in an Ink RPC Provider

Not every criterion matters equally. These factors carry the most weight for DeFi infrastructure on Ink:

• Latency - With 1-second blocks, your RPC round-trip needs to stay well under that window so reads reflect current state and your indexer keeps pace.
• Archive node access - Withdrawal proofs, historical balances, and DeFi analytics all query state at past block heights. Archive access is essential for reconciliation and indexing.
• Trace and debug APIs - debug_traceTransaction and related methods are how you diagnose a failed swap or a liquidation that did not fire. Public Ink endpoints restrict these, so confirm your provider exposes them.
• WebSocket support - Monitoring pool events, fills, and price updates depends on persistent WebSocket connections rather than polling. Confirm stable WSS endpoints.
• Pricing transparency - Some providers bill in compute units, where an eth_call costs 26 CU on Alchemy, 20 credits on QuickNode and 4 TU on Tenderly, and a debug_traceTransaction costs 40 on all three. On a trace-heavy DeFi workload, those multipliers set the bill.
• Superchain coverage - If you build across the Superchain, a provider that serves Ink alongside Optimism, Base, and other OP Stack chains keeps your infrastructure consistent.

How to Compare Ink Pricing Across Unit Systems

Every headline rate in this comparison is quoted in a different unit. The only way to compare them is to convert each one to dollars per million calls for the methods an Ink DeFi backend actually makes, using the weight each provider assigns to the method.

Per-request billing. One response is one unit, whatever the method. Dwellir bills this way: its Developer plan works out to $1.96 per 1M calls included, with overage at $2-5 per 1M.

Request units. Chainstack bills request units (RU) with no method weights: 1 RU for a call under 127 blocks behind the tip, 2 RU for an older-state read, and 2 RU for every debug_* and trace_* call. Its Growth plan works out to $2.45 per 1M recent-block calls included, with overage at $5-20 per 1M depending on plan.

Compute units and credits. The provider charges per million units and gives each method a weight, so the cost of a call depends on the method.

• Alchemy charges $0.525 per 1M CU. On Ink that is $13.65 per 1M eth_call, $31.50 per 1M eth_getLogs, $21.00 per 1M eth_sendRawTransaction, $10.50 per 1M eth_getTransactionReceipt or eth_getBalance, and $21.00 per 1M debug_traceTransaction.
• QuickNode assigns a flat 20 credits to every Ink call, which is $10.00 per 1M calls at Business's overage rate and $12.40 at Build's. Debug and trace calls carry a 2x chain multiplier, $20.00 per 1M at Business, and large calls such as txpool_content are 4x, $40.00 per 1M.
• dRPC assigns 20 CU to every method, a flat $6.00 per 1M calls on pay as you go, trace and archive included. The Pro and Scale plans count 16 and 14 CU per request from their pools, or $4.80 and $4.20 per 1M calls.
• Tenderly weights eth_call at 4 TU, writes at 20 and debug or trace at 40, but publishes no dollar rate, so there is no per-call figure to compare.

Method by method, in dollars per 1M calls at each plan's included rate:

The effective prices and monthly totals later in this post use a DeFi read-heavy mix: 40% eth_call, 25% eth_getTransactionReceipt, 15% eth_blockNumber, 10% eth_getLogs over small ranges, 5% eth_getBalance and 5% eth_sendRawTransaction, all on recent blocks. On that mix an Ink call averages 25.9 CU on Alchemy, so 1M calls cost $13.60 and the free 30M CU covers about 1.2M calls. On QuickNode every call is 20 credits, so Build's 80M credits cover 4M calls and Business's 2B credits cover 100M calls at $999. On Chainstack every call in the mix is 1 RU, $2.45 per 1M on Growth. On Tenderly the same mix averages about 3.15 TU per call.

1. Dwellir

Dwellir provides Ink RPC with a 1:1 pricing model. Every API response counts as one request, regardless of method complexity. No compute units, no multipliers. A debug_traceTransaction costs the same as an eth_getBalance.

Key features:

• 150+ supported networks, including Ink and other Superchain L2s
• Archive and full nodes on Ink, per Dwellir's Ink docs
• Trace and Debug namespaces on Ink (reth client, with trace_*, debug_*, and txpool support)
• WebSocket at wss://api-ink-mainnet.n.dwellir.com/<your-api-key>
• Unlimited Node for flat, unmetered billing on the same URL and key
• European infrastructure, autoscaling on paid plans
• Crypto payments accepted on every paid plan

Pricing:

A dedicated Ink node cluster lists at $2,400 per month, with unlimited RPS and responses, trace and debug APIs, and a dedicated account manager.

The 1:1 model is directly relevant to Ink workloads. DeFi applications that lean on trace APIs and event subscriptions cost significantly more on providers that apply compute unit multipliers to complex methods. The Ink endpoint runs on reth with full trace and debug access, which public endpoints do not offer. At the Scale tier, $2 per million overage is among the lowest rates available.

Best for: Teams that need predictable costs at scale, especially DeFi applications where trace, debug, and historical-state calls are frequent.

2. Chainstack

Chainstack serves Ink mainnet (chain ID 57073) on shared Global Nodes and on Dedicated Nodes, in full and archive mode, with Debug and Trace APIs. It runs Ink on op-reth and bills request units with no method weights, which puts it closest to Dwellir on unit design.

Key features:

• 70+ supported chains, including Ink and other Superchain L2s
• Archive and full mode on Ink Global Nodes; archive data and debug and trace APIs on paid plans
• Ink Testnet (chain ID 763373) on Global Nodes, per Chainstack's Ink page
• WebSocket on all plans
• Unlimited Node add-on from $149/month at 25 RPS, advertised for Ink
• Dedicated Nodes (isolated op-reth) from the Pro plan, compute from $0.50/hour plus storage
• SOC 2 Type II and ISO 27001; crypto payment

Pricing:

A request under 127 blocks behind the tip costs 1 RU; 127 or more blocks behind costs 2 RU as an archive read, and debug and trace calls cost 2 RU regardless of block age. Debug, trace and archive data start on Growth.

On the DeFi mix every Ink call is 1 RU, so Growth lands at $2.45 per 1M calls. The costs sit in overage ($10-20 per 1M below Enterprise) and in withdrawal-proof and other old-state reads at 2 RU, which matter on Ink's archive-heavy reconciliation work.

Best for: DeFi teams that want archive and trace on a shared Ink endpoint, with SOC 2 documentation and per-request billing without method weights.

3. Alchemy

Alchemy supports Ink mainnet at ink-mainnet.g.alchemy.com with archive data and its broader OP Stack and Superchain tooling. The platform bills in compute units (CU), where method complexity determines cost per call.

Key features:

• 100+ supported blockchains with deep OP Stack coverage
• Archive data and WebSocket on Ink
• Debug API live on Ink (Pay as You Go and above, not on Free); the Trace API is marked "Request support" for Ink, so it is not live
• Token and Transfers APIs, Bundler API, Gas Manager and Webhooks live on Ink
• Mature SDKs and developer tooling

Pricing:

Extra PAYG throughput costs $160 per month per 5,000 CU/s block, up to a 30,000 CU/s self-serve cap.

The free 30M CU covers about 1.2M Ink calls on the DeFi mix, without debug. On PAYG, eth_getLogs costs 60 CU, or $31.50 per 1M log queries, and the mix lands at $13.60 per 1M calls. Alchemy's strength on Ink is consistency: if you already build across Optimism, Base, and other Superchain chains, the same APIs and tooling extend to Ink.

Best for: Teams building across the Superchain that want consistent tooling and enhanced APIs, and are comfortable with compute unit billing.

4. QuickNode

QuickNode runs one of Ink's official public endpoints (rpc-qnd.inkonchain.com), so it operates Ink infrastructure directly. Paid plans add Streams and Webhooks, useful for building event-driven DeFi notifications.

Key features:

• 79+ supported networks
• Archive nodes and WebSocket included
• Trace API available
• QuickNode Streams and Webhooks on paid tiers
• Operates an official Ink public endpoint

Pricing:

Effective price is the plan cost spread over the Ink calls its credits cover. Annual billing lowers each tier, for example Build to $34 per month.

QuickNode Streams provide push-based data delivery rather than constant polling, which suits monitoring Ink pool events and fills. Ink costs 20 credits per call, so the credit totals overstate Ink request capacity by 20 times, and debug and trace calls cost 40. At the Business tier ($999/month), QuickNode caps RPS at 500, compared to Dwellir's 5,000 RPS (10,000 burst) at the same price point.

Best for: Teams that want event-driven infrastructure (Streams and Webhooks) from a provider that operates Ink's core public endpoints.

5. dRPC

dRPC serves Ink at ink.drpc.org and routes requests across a decentralized network of independent node operators, with a generous free tier for development.

Key features:

• 130+ supported chains
• Archive nodes and WebSocket included
• Trace API on paid plans
• Decentralized routing across multiple node providers
• MEV protection on paid tiers
• Accepts crypto payments

Pricing:

Every method costs a flat 20 CU, so the free 210M CU covers about 10.5M Ink calls on public nodes, and a keyless call to ink.drpc.org returned archive state at block 1. Pro charges $49 for about 10M calls ($4.80 per 1M) at 300 RPS for any method, trace and archive included, with overage at $6.00 per 1M. Scale raises the limit to 600 RPS for $199. That is above Dwellir's included rates ($1.96-2.00) and its overage ($2-5), and below QuickNode and Alchemy on the DeFi mix.

Best for: Teams in early development that want maximum free-tier capacity, or teams that want archive and trace at one per-request rate without an enterprise contract.

6. Tenderly

Tenderly runs an official Ink public endpoint (rpc-ten.inkonchain.com) and brings a development toolkit that is hard to match: transaction simulation, full execution traces, and the ability to fork Ink mainnet state into virtual test environments.

Key features:

• 80+ supported networks
• Archive nodes and full execution traces
• Transaction simulation and debugging
• Virtual environments (fork Ink mainnet state)
• Real-time alerting
• Operates an official Ink public endpoint

Pricing:

Sales-led. Tenderly's docs state that Node RPC is available on paid plans only and that the Free plan does not include Node RPC access; paid capacity is quoted by sales. No public dollar prices were published on 2026-09-28. Usage is measured in Tenderly Units (TU):

Effective $/1M calls: not published, so Tenderly cannot be placed on the same scale as the other providers.

The DeFi mix averages about 3.15 TU per call, and a debug_traceTransaction costs 40 TU, ten times an eth_call. Tenderly's real value on Ink is its tooling: forking mainnet state to simulate a swap or liquidation before deploying is powerful for teams building complex DeFi logic.

Best for: Development and QA teams that need to simulate and debug Ink DeFi flows in forked environments before production.

7. Gelato

Gelato is the provider behind Ink's default public endpoint (rpc-gel.inkonchain.com) and a core part of Ink's infrastructure. Gelato deployed Ink as a Rollup-as-a-Service chain for Kraken and runs one of the permissionless fault-proof challengers that secure withdrawals.

Key features:

• Operates Ink's default public RPC and WebSocket endpoints
• Runs a permissionless fault-proof challenger on Ink
• Rollup-as-a-Service platform for the broader Superchain
• WebSocket support included

Pricing:

Gelato's public Ink endpoint is free but rate-limited, and it rejects trace and debug methods (rpc method is not whitelisted). Gelato publishes no self-serve RPC plans: its site lists RPC as part of its rollup platform, and there is no public price per request. Effective $/1M calls: not published. Contact Gelato for production quotes.

Best for: Teams that want RPC from the team that operates Ink's core infrastructure, or that are already using Gelato's Rollup-as-a-Service and automation products.

Provider Comparison

Effective Price per Million Calls

One denominator for every provider: dollars per 1M Ink calls under the DeFi mix, at the entry paid plan and at the best self-serve rate, with overage alongside.

What That Costs at Volume

Plans step at fixed tiers, so monthly bills differ from the per-million rates. Same DeFi mix, list prices.

Among the providers here with published prices, Dwellir's metered plans are the lowest at all three volumes, level with Chainstack's Growth plan and dRPC Pro at 10M. Chainstack's 100M figure is Pro plus 20M of overage at $12.50. Its Unlimited Node at 50M is $119 if average traffic stays under 25 RPS and $479 for the 100 RPS tier. One caveat at the low end: dRPC's free tier covers about 10.5M Ink calls a month on public nodes at 100 RPS, so a 10M workload that can accept public nodes costs $0 there. The weighted-unit rows move with your method mix: a heavier share of eth_getLogs raises Alchemy's bill, and a heavier share of trace calls raises QuickNode's.

Choosing the Right Provider

For most teams building on Ink, the decision comes down to four scenarios.

Best all-round choice: Dwellir. The 1:1 pricing model removes the guesswork of compute unit billing, which matters on Ink where DeFi workflows generate a dense mix of reads, event subscriptions, and trace calls. Archive nodes and full trace and debug access come on all paid plans, covering the historical-state and debugging needs that public Ink endpoints do not. At the Scale tier, 5,000 RPS with 10,000 burst and $2/M overage gives substantial headroom for production DeFi.

Best for archive and trace with compliance documentation: Chainstack. Request units keep recent-block calls at 1 RU with no method weights, and Growth adds archive, debug and trace on a shared endpoint for $49 per month. SOC 2 Type II and ISO 27001 help teams that face vendor reviews. Archive reads and traces cost 2 RU, and overage runs $10-20 per 1M below Enterprise.

Best for Superchain-native tooling: Alchemy. If your application spans Optimism, Base, and other OP Stack chains, Alchemy's consistent APIs and enhanced data endpoints extend cleanly to Ink. That consistency is worth the compute unit model for teams already invested in the platform.

Best for development and testing: dRPC or Tenderly. dRPC's 210M CU free tier, about 10.5M Ink calls at 100 RPS on public nodes, is the most generous sandbox for prototyping. Tenderly adds the ability to fork Ink mainnet state for simulation and debugging, which is invaluable for testing complex swap and liquidation logic before going live.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the best Ink RPC provider?

Dwellir offers the best all-round choice for Ink with 1:1 pricing that eliminates compute unit complexity. This matters on Ink because DeFi workflows generate a dense mix of reads, event subscriptions, and trace calls. Archive nodes and trace APIs are included on all paid plans. For OP Stack and Superchain-native tooling, Alchemy is the strongest alternative.

What is Ink blockchain?

Ink is a DeFi-focused Ethereum Layer 2 built and incubated by Kraken. It runs on the OP Stack and is part of the Optimism Superchain, with chain ID 57073, 1-second block times, and ETH for gas. It launched in December 2024 as an optimistic rollup that settles to Ethereum, and it was the first Superchain network to launch with multiple permissionless fault-proof challengers.

Are there free Ink RPC endpoints?

Yes. Ink publishes public endpoints from Gelato (rpc-gel.inkonchain.com), QuickNode (rpc-qnd.inkonchain.com), Tenderly (rpc-ten.inkonchain.com), and dRPC (ink.drpc.org), but they are rate-limited and restrict debug and trace methods. Provider free tiers go further: dRPC offers 210M compute units monthly (about 10.5M calls), Alchemy 30M compute units (about 1.2M calls), Chainstack 3M request units, and Dwellir 100K requests per day.

What RPC performance does Ink require?

Ink produces blocks every second, so a slow RPC connection falls behind on block ingestion quickly. DeFi applications on Ink need stable WebSocket connections for event monitoring, archive nodes for historical state and withdrawal proofs, and trace or debug APIs for diagnosing failed swaps and liquidations. Public endpoints restrict trace and debug, so production workloads need a paid plan.

Related Resources

• RPC Providers Without Compute Units - Why transparent pricing matters for Ink's trace-heavy DeFi workloads
• Self-Hosted vs Managed RPC Nodes - Evaluate whether to run your own Ink node or use a managed provider

Getting Started

Ink's public endpoints are fine for a prototype, but production DeFi needs higher throughput, archive access, and the trace and debug methods that public endpoints restrict. The providers listed here all support Ink today, with different trade-offs in pricing model and tooling.

If you are evaluating Ink RPC for production, test latency and reliability across 2-3 providers with your actual workload patterns. Free tiers exist across most options, so use them.

Ready to build on Ink? Get started with Dwellir's Ink RPC endpoints or contact the Dwellir team to discuss infrastructure requirements for your DeFi application.