Free Ethereum RPC in 2026: get an HTTPS endpoint without a card

What “free Ethereum RPC” means here

You create an endpoint for ethereum + mainnet (or sepolia / hoodi). The URL is yours: https://ethereum-mainnet.rpcnode.dev/{uuid}. It speaks standard JSON-RPC — the same methods ethers, viem, and web3.js already know.

It is a full node, not an archive node. eth_blockNumber, eth_getBalance, eth_call on recent state, eth_sendRawTransaction, and reasonably bounded eth_getLogs work. Deep historical traces and ancient eth_call do not. That honesty is the product, not a footnote.

• Free: $0, no card, 15M credits / month, 15 RPS
• Environments: mainnet, Sepolia, Hoodi
• Auth: the UUID in the path; optional IP allowlist

Get an endpoint in three steps

Sign up at rpcnode.dev/register. Open Endpoints, pick Ethereum and an environment, create. Copy the HTTPS URL. There is no public keyless demo URL — /status shows live tips without a key if you only need to see that the chain is up.

curl

curl https://ethereum-mainnet.rpcnode.dev/YOUR-ENDPOINT-UUID \
  -H 'content-type: application/json' \
  -d '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":1,"method":"eth_blockNumber","params":[]}'

Point ethers or viem at it

Treat the URL like any other HTTPS JSON-RPC provider. Do not append /v1 or an API key query string — the UUID is the credential.

ethers v6

import { JsonRpcProvider } from 'ethers'

const provider = new JsonRpcProvider(
  'https://ethereum-mainnet.rpcnode.dev/YOUR-ENDPOINT-UUID',
)
const block = await provider.getBlockNumber()

Limits you should plan for

15 RPS is a hard ceiling per endpoint (1-second window). Over it you get HTTP 429 and JSON-RPC -32005; those rejects do not burn credits. 15M credits is enough for development and modest production. Payment webhooks and Address Watch slots start on paid tiers — Free is RPC-only.

Method docs and credit weights: docs.rpcnode.dev/ethereum. Compare archive/enhanced vendors on /compare if you need traces.

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