Compute Unit Costs
New CU Costs
Build and scale apps with lower CU costs on key APIs
Table of Contents
What are Compute Units NFT API Transfers API Token API Transact Debug API Trace API EVM API Polygon PoS API Polygon zkEVM API Gas Manager & Bundler APIs Embedded Account APIs Starknet JSON-RPC APIs Solana API Notify & Subscription APIs Error Codes
What are Compute Units?
Compute units (CUs) are the measure of the total computational resources your apps use on our platform. Different methods consume different amounts of CUs based on their complexity. For example, a lightweight query like eth_blockNumber uses fewer CUs than a more intensive query like eth_getLogs. For more details, please check out the Compute Units page.
What are Throughput Compute Units?
Throughput Compute Units define how often you can run the request within your throughput limits. For example, a 500 CU per second limit would be able to run 50 requests per second that cost 10 throughput CUs. The actual cost of the method is still reflected by the CU amount while the threshold CU allows you to increase the number of requests before you hit your rate limit. If there is no throughput CU listed, it defaults to the actual CU cost.
NFT API
We want builders to be able to use as much of the NFT API as they need without worrying about throughput. Because of that, we have discounted how NFT API requests count towards your applications’ guaranteed throughput by 6-10x. This means you can make more concurrent NFT API requests, and use the “Throughput CU” below to calculate how much you can use!
🆕 Solana DAS (NFT/Token) APIs
Transfers API
Portfolio APIs
Token API
Prices API
Utility APIs
Transact
Debug API
Trace API
Standard EVM JSON-RPC Methods
- To view the batch request breakdown in the dashboard, click on “raw request”
Polygon PoS Specific Methods
Polygon zkEVM Specific Methods
zkSync Era Specific Methods
All zkSync Era specific methods cost 10 CUs, this includes the methods listed below:
- zks-estimatefee-zksync
- zks-estimategasl1tol2-zksync
- zks-getallaccountbalances-zksync
- zks-getblockdetails-zksync
- zks-getbridgecontracts-zksync
- zks-getbytecodebyhash-zksync
- zks-getl1batchblockrange-zksync
- zks-getl1batchdetails-zksync
- zks-getl2tol1logproof-zksync
- zks-getl2tol1msgproof-zksync
- zks-getmaincontract-zksync
- zks-getproof-zksync
- zks-getrawblocktransactions-zksync
- zks-gettestnetpaymaster-zksync
- zks-gettransactiondetails-zksync
- zks-l1batchnumber-zksync
- zks-l1chainid-zksync
Gas Manager & Bundler APIs
Similar to the NFT API, the Gas Manager & Bundler APIs implement “Throughput CU” to count separately toward your applications’ throughput!
Embedded Account APIs
Similar to the NFT API, the Embedded Account APIs implement “Throughput CU” to count separately toward your applications’ throughput!
Standard Starknet JSON-RPC Methods
Standard Solana JSON-RPC Methods
- To view the batch request breakdown in the dashboard, click on “raw request”
Webhooks and Subscription APIs
Webhooks and WebSocket WebSocket Subscriptions on Alchemy are priced based on bandwidth: the amount of data delivered as part of the subscription.
Each subscription type is priced identically per byte:
On average, a typical webhook or WebSocket subscription event is about 1000 bytes, so it would consume 40 compute units. Note that this can vary significantly based on the specific event delivered Subscription API Quickstart