Stellar RPC has Arrived

Stellar RPC is a lightweight tool that provides real-time access to Stellar network data. Much like RPC nodes in other blockchain ecosystems, it allows developers to query the network efficiently. Whether you’re building a non-custodial wallet, issuing assets, or monitoring network activity, Stellar RPC is designed to provide trusted, stable infrastructure that anyone can run.

Key Features:

• Real-time data access: Get the information you need, when you need it
• Optimized for developers: Extract and store only the blockchain data relevant to your application
• Streamlined infrastructure: Focus your development efforts on your own product, without the added overhead of interacting directly with Stellar Core

What Stellar RPC is not:

• An indexer for historical data
• A primary backend service for your application
• A drop-in replacement for Horizon

For any new builders coming to Stellar, Stellar RPC should be your starting point—it’s built to align with the growing needs of the ecosystem.

The name Soroban RPC gave the impression that the tool was specific to Stellar smart contract functionality that is powered by the Soroban contract runtime. However, Stellar RPC supports access to all data on Stellar, not only smart contracts.

This misalignment created a split-brain mentality in the ecosystem: developers building without smart contracts leaned toward Horizon, while those building smart contracts used RPC. By renaming it to Stellar RPC, we’re unifying the approach to data access and reinforcing its role as the foundational entry point for all Stellar builders.

Using Horizon today is like using a sledgehammer to crack a nut; it’s powerful, but increasingly impractical for most use cases. Horizon is engineered to maintain all historical data back to genesis and provides customized indexing capabilities for specific use cases that only a subset of applications care about (e.g., payment providers, trading bots).

When running your own infrastructure, you’ll likely find that Horizon is overkill for your application’s requirements. Not only that, but maintaining it will become even more challenging as network activity increases and the cost of preserving full history continues to rise.

This impracticality has long been hidden from a lot of the ecosystem, as the SDF’s hosted Horizon instance has shouldered a lot of the operational burden. But we know that this dynamic has come with its own set of issues, as it’s hindered the ability to create a healthy, self-sustaining, decentralized network. By moving beyond Horizon, we aim to foster an ecosystem where developers can build tailored solutions without unnecessary overhead.

If you were at Stellar Meridian 2024 , you might have heard about the plan to significantly increase network capacity. We’ve also started to see huge upticks in organic network activity in the last couple months of 2024, presenting a concrete need for more capacity.

At present, Horizon’s database is growing at a rate of 1 TB per month, but that rate could increase drastically as network activity picks up and we adjust network settings to accommodate. You may find that your operational experience will degrade even quicker than expected, given this context.

Horizon will continue to receive protocol updates, but it won’t see additional features added in support of smart contracts, and it won’t be significantly overhauled to support performance needs for large historical data sets. For developers seeking a scalable, unified approach to Stellar data access, look beyond Horizon and consider Stellar RPC or new open-source architecture known as the Composable Data Platform.

Stellar RPC is just getting started, and we’re committed to delivering new features and improvements to ensure it meets the growing demands of the Stellar ecosystem. Stay tuned for more details on the 2025 roadmap, which we’ll be sharing soon.

In the meantime…

• Have questions, concerns, or feature requests for Stellar RPC?

Join us in the Stellar Developer Discord to share your thoughts and connect with other builders in the Stellar community

• Need advice on migrating from Horizon to Stellar RPC?Post in discord in the #data-help forum or the #stellar-rpc channel
• Interested in running Stellar RPC yourself?Check out the admin guide in the Stellar Developer Docs

Looking for someone to run a Stellar RPC instance for you?Check out one of the ecosystem RPC providers