net_peerCount | Cronos RPC Docs

Get the number of peers connected to your Cronos node. Essential for network health monitoring, peer discovery verification, and load balancer decisions.

Returns the number of peers currently connected to your Cronos node.

Why Cronos? Build on the EVM-compatible Crypto.com blockchain with fast finality and deep Crypto.com ecosystem integration.

When to Use This Method

net_peerCount is important for Cronos developers building DeFi and payment applications:

Network Health Monitoring — Verify your node has sufficient peer connections for reliable data propagation
Peer Discovery Verification — Confirm that peer discovery is working after node startup or network changes
Load Balancer Decisions — Route traffic to well-connected nodes with healthy peer counts
Troubleshooting Connectivity — Diagnose networking issues when a node returns stale or missing data

Request Parameters

Request

This method accepts no parameters.

Response Body

Response

resultQUANTITY

Hexadecimal string representing the number of connected peers

Error Responses

Errors

Error Response-32601

{  "jsonrpc": "2.0",  "method": "net_peerCount",  "params": [],  "id": 1}

{  "jsonrpc": "2.0",  "id": 1,  "result": "0x19"}

{  "jsonrpc": "2.0",  "id": 1,  "error": {    "code": -32601,    "message": "The method net_peerCount does not exist/is not available"  }}

Code Examples

Bash

curl -X POST https://api-cronos-mainnet-archive.n.dwellir.com/YOUR_API_KEY \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "jsonrpc": "2.0",
    "method": "net_peerCount",
    "params": [],
    "id": 1
  }'

Common Use Cases

1. Network Health Monitor

Continuously check peer count and alert when it drops below a threshold:

JavaScript

async function monitorPeers(provider, minPeers = 3, interval = 30000) {
  setInterval(async () => {
    const peerCountHex = await provider.send('net_peerCount', []);
    const peerCount = parseInt(peerCountHex, 16);

    if (peerCount === 0) {
      console.error('CRITICAL: Node has no peers — network isolated');
    } else if (peerCount < minPeers) {
      console.warn(`LOW PEERS: ${peerCount} connected (minimum: ${minPeers})`);
    } else {
      console.log(`Healthy — ${peerCount} peers connected`);
    }
  }, interval);
}

2. Node Readiness Check

Verify a node has enough peers before routing traffic to it:

JavaScript

async function isNodeReady(rpcUrl, minPeers = 5) {
  const provider = new JsonRpcProvider(rpcUrl);

  const [peerCountHex, syncing] = await Promise.all([
    provider.send('net_peerCount', []),
    provider.send('eth_syncing', [])
  ]);

  const peerCount = parseInt(peerCountHex, 16);
  const isSynced = syncing === false;
  const hasEnoughPeers = peerCount >= minPeers;

  return {
    ready: isSynced && hasEnoughPeers,
    peerCount,
    syncing: !isSynced
  };
}

3. Multi-Node Fleet Dashboard

Aggregate peer counts across a fleet of Cronos nodes:

Python

import requests

def check_fleet_peers(endpoints):
    results = []
    for endpoint in endpoints:
        try:
            response = requests.post(
                endpoint,
                json={'jsonrpc': '2.0', 'method': 'net_peerCount', 'params': [], 'id': 1},
                timeout=5
            )
            peers = int(response.json()['result'], 16)
            results.append({'endpoint': endpoint, 'peers': peers, 'healthy': peers > 0})
        except Exception as e:
            results.append({'endpoint': endpoint, 'peers': 0, 'healthy': False, 'error': str(e)})
    return results

Error Handling

Error Code	Description	Solution
-32601	Method not found	The node may have the `net` namespace disabled — check node startup flags
-32603	Internal error	Node may be starting up — retry after delay
-32005	Rate limit exceeded	Reduce polling frequency or implement backoff

net_listening — Check if node is accepting connections
net_version — Get the network ID
eth_syncing — Check node sync progress
web3_clientVersion — Get node client info

net_peerCount - Cronos RPC Method