How Much Does It Cost To Run A Solana Node [In-Depth View]

Solana is one of the most demanding blockchain networks in terms of infrastructure requirements. It has block times under 400 milliseconds and a capacity to process thousands of transactions per second. Solana’s unique proof-of-history (PoH) mechanism and parallel transaction processing make it a favorite for DeFi platforms, gaming applications, and high-performance dApps.

So, how much does it actually cost to run a Solana node? In this guide, I’ll provide an in-depth analysis of running production-grade Solana nodes. We'll break down Solana node cost including hardware specifications, examine the monthly expenses, and any other financial considerations involved in Solana infrastructure.

For a detailed walkthrough of setting up Solana nodes, you can refer to this article, which covers the step-by-step process and fundamental concepts.

#How to Run a Solana Node?

Running a Solana node is not just about spinning up a server; It requires careful planning and consideration of hardware, bandwidth, and ongoing operational costs to ensure low latency, high throughput, and consistent uptime, especially when your application or staking operation depends on it.

#Solana Node Cost Overview

Whether you're planning on running a validator node to participate in network consensus or an RPC node serving decentralized applications, or a developer building on the network, understanding the cost of running a Solana node is essential for making informed infrastructure decisions.

There are usually two options when planning to run a blockchain node:

1. Using RPC Node Providers (i.e, Alchemy, Quicknode) or
2. self-hosting on dedicated infrastructure.

Each approach comes with different cost structures, performance characteristics, and trade-offs.

#Understanding Solana Node Types

Before we dive into Solana node cost, it’s crucial to understand the two primary types of nodes that power Solana’s infrastructure: Validator nodes and Solana RPC nodes.

While both validator nodes and RPC nodes maintain a copy of the blockchain ledger and track every state transition, they serve fundamentally different purposes within the network.

#1. What are Solana Validator Nodes?

Validator nodes help secure the network by producing blocks and voting on the validity of other blocks. Solana validator nodes are the core of Solana’s consensus mechanism, participating actively in the network’s Proof-of-Stake system.

Key responsibilities include:

• Block Production: When selected as a leader, validators produce new blocks containing transactions

• Voting: Validators continuously vote on blocks proposed by other validators to reach consensus

• State Validation: Maintaining and validating the current state of the blockchain

By running a Solana validator node, validators earn inflation rewards from vote credits, which are assigned to validators that successfully vote on blocks added to the blockchain. Additionally, when serving as the leader, validators can earn transaction fees and storage rent fees for each block produced.

#2. What are RPC Nodes?

RPC (Remote Procedure Call) nodes keep track of all information on the blockchain but don't vote on it or produce blocks. They only respond to data requests and do not participate in consensus.

RPC nodes serve as the interface layer between applications and the Solana blockchain, handling:

• Transaction Submission: Receiving signed transactions from users and forwarding them to validators

• State Queries: Responding to requests for account balances, program states, transaction history, and other blockchain data

• API Services: Exposing JSON-RPC endpoints that developers use to build applications

• Data Indexing: Building auxiliary databases for queries not natively supported by the validator software

#How much does it cost to run a Solana node

#Hardware Requirements

The hardware recommendations below are provided as a guide. Operators are encouraged to do their own performance testing.

These specifications represent the official minimums from the Solana documentation. In practice, production environments serving real traffic typically exceed these requirements, particularly for high-traffic RPC nodes and validators with significant delegated stake.

#1. Solana Validator Node Requirements

#Minimum SOL Requirements

• No strict minimum amount of SOL required to run a validator on Solana

• However, validators typically stake at least 100 SOL to be competitive for rewards, as validators with higher stakes are preferred in the consensus mechanism

• A vote account required to participate in consensus with a rent-exempt reserve of 0.02685864 SOL

• Voting requires sending a vote transaction for each block the validator agrees with, which can cost up to 1.1 SOL per day

#Validator Node Hardware Specifications

CPU:

• 24 cores / 48 threads, or more (recommended for mainnet; minimum 12 cores / 24 threads)

• 3.2GHz base clock speed, or faster

• SHA extensions instruction support

• AMD EPYC Genoa (Zen 4, 9004-series) recommended; at minimum AMD Gen 3 or newer (or Intel Ice Lake or newer)

• AVX2 instruction support (to use official release binaries)

• Support for AVX512f is helpful

Memory:

• 384GB or more

• Error Correction Code (ECC) memory is required

• Motherboard with 512GB capacity suggested

Storage:

• PCIe Gen3 x4 NVME SSD, or better

• Accounts: 1TB or larger with high TBW (Total Bytes Written)

• Ledger: 1TB or larger with high TBW suggested

• OS: (Optional) 500GB or larger - SATA acceptable

• Accounts and ledgers can be stored on the same disk; however, due to high IOPS, this is not recommended

Network:

• 10 Gbit/s symmetric, commercial (strongly recommended for mainnet). 1 Gbit/s is the official minimum, but operators regularly see it fall behind during peak load

• Must be unshaped and unmetered

• Port requirements: 8000-10000 TCP/UDP for P2P protocols (gossip, turbine, repair, etc.)

Operating System:

• Ubuntu 22.04 LTS or 24.04 LTS (preferred), or Debian 12 (Bookworm)

#2. Solana RPC Node Requirements

The hardware recommendations for validators should be considered bare minimums but if the validator is intended to be employed as an RPC node. The requirements should be adjusted as follows to achieve complete functionality and greater operational stability.

#RPC Hardware Specifications

CPU:

• 32 cores / 64 threads, or more (recommended for mainnet; minimum 16 cores / 32 threads)

• Same instruction set requirements as validators (SHA extensions, AVX2, AVX512f helpful)

Memory:

• 384 GB, or more

• 512 GB or more if account-index is used (up to 1 TB for full secondary indexes)

• ECC required

Storage:

• Same SSD requirements as validators (PCIe Gen3 x4 NVME or better)

• Consider a larger ledger disk if a longer transaction history is required

• Accounts and the ledger should not be stored on the same disk

Network:

• Same as validators: 10Gbps recommended

• Must be unshaped and unmetered

Operating System:

• Same as validators (Ubuntu 22.04 LTS or 24.04 LTS (preferred), or Debian 12 (Bookworm))

Transaction Costs:

• RPC nodes do not incur any transaction cost other than the cost of running and maintaining the node

#Validator vs RPC Node Requirements Comparison Table

#Important Considerations

Cloud vs Bare Metal:

• While you can run a validator on a cloud computing platform, it may not be cost-efficient over the long term

• Running a validator for live clusters (including mainnet-beta) inside Docker is not recommended and generally not supported.

Network Setup:

• It is not recommended to run a validator behind a NAT

#Cost Breakdown - Running Solana Nodes on Dedicated Infrastructure

Cherry Servers provides dedicated bare-metal servers specifically optimized for running both Solana RPC nodes and validator nodes on mainnet. With pre-configured Solana servers, the hardware setups meet Solana's production requirements; operators can deploy nodes quickly without the complexity of assembling and configuring hardware from scratch.

Deployment time: 15-30 minutes for pre-configured options

#Pre-Configured Solana Server Options

Cherry Servers offers three main configurations tailored for different Solana workloads:

#1. Mainnet Solana Agave Validator

Hardware Specifications:

• CPU: AMD EPYC 9255 (24 cores @ 3.2GHz, up to 4.3GHz)

• RAM: 384GB ECC REG DDR5

• Storage: 2x 1TB NVMe + 2x 4TB NVMe

• Bandwidth: Up to 10Gbps with 100TB free egress traffic

• Locations: Lithuania, Netherlands, United States, Sweden

Base Monthly Cost: $817.83/month ($1.39/hour)

This configuration meets and exceeds the official Solana validator requirements. The 384GB RAM surpasses the 256GB minimum, while the dual NVMe setup allows for proper separation of accounts and ledger data as recommended.

Flexible Configuration Options:

Agave validator configurations can be customized with different RAM tiers:

• 192GB RAM: $537.03/month (2x 1TB NVMe storage only)

• 384GB RAM: $817.83/month (2x 1TB + 2x 4TB NVMe) — Recommended

• 768GB RAM: $1,159.47/month (2x 1TB + 2x 4TB NVMe)

#2. Mainnet Solana Firedancer Validator

Hardware Specifications:

• CPU: AMD EPYC 9355 (24 cores @ 3.55GHz, up to 4.4GHz)

• RAM: 384GB ECC REG DDR5

• Storage: 2x 1TB NVMe + 2x 4TB NVMe

• Bandwidth: Up to 10Gbps with 100TB free egress traffic

• Locations: Lithuania, Sweden, Netherlands

Base Monthly Cost: $981.63/month

The Firedancer configuration uses the EPYC 9355 processor with slightly higher clock speeds optimized for Firedancer's performance characteristics.

Flexible Configuration Options:

Firedancer validator configurations offer extended RAM options:

• 192GB RAM: $700.83/month (2x 1TB NVMe only)

• 384GB RAM: $981.63/month (2x 1TB + 2x 4TB NVMe) — Recommended

• 768GB RAM: $1,323.27/month (2x 1TB + 2x 4TB NVMe)

• 1152GB RAM: $1,714.05/month (2x 1TB + 2x 4TB NVMe) — For high-performance requirements

#3. Large Solana RPC Node

Hardware Specifications:

• CPU: AMD Threadripper PRO 7975WX (32 cores @ 4GHz, up to 5.3GHz)

• RAM: 768GB ECC REG DDR5

• Storage: 2x 1TB NVMe + 2x 4TB NVMe

• Bandwidth: Up to 10Gbps with 100TB free egress traffic

• Locations: Lithuania, Netherlands, Sweden, United States, Germany

Monthly Cost: $1,461.33/month ($2.50/hour)

This configuration significantly exceeds RPC node minimums, purpose-built for production RPC nodes serving high traffic volumes. The 768GB RAM provides substantial headroom for account indexing and caching, while the Threadripper PRO's 32 cores and exceptional boost clocks handle concurrent API requests efficiently.

#Custom Hardware Configurations

Beyond pre-configured options, Cherry Servers supports custom hardware specifications deployed within 24 hours. This flexibility allows operators to optimize for specific use cases, whether validators with unique stake requirements or RPC nodes with specialized indexing needs.

#What's Included in the Price

All Cherry Servers configurations include:

• 100TB Free Egress Traffic: Covers typical validator bandwidth usage (60-100TB/month)

• Unlimited Ingress: No charges for incoming traffic

• Up to 10Gbps Bandwidth: Production-grade connectivity

• Zero Setup Fees: No upfront costs

• 99.97% SLA: Guaranteed uptime

• 24/7 Support: Via chat, email, and phone

• Flexible Billing: Hourly or monthly options

• Multiple Payment Methods: Including cryptocurrency

#Understanding Validator Economics

Here's where running a Solana validator gets interesting and expensive. Unlike RPC nodes that simply serve data, validators must participate in consensus by voting on every block. And in Solana's design, these votes aren't free.

Every validator vote is a transaction on the blockchain, and in each epoch (432,000 slots), validators need to vote with each voting transaction priced at 0.000005 SOL, amounting to a total of ~2-3 SOL each epoch. Given that an epoch typically spans 2 to 3 days (generally closer to 2 days), the annual cost for voting transactions is ~300-350 SOL, translating to ~1 SOL per day.

As of November 2025, SOL is trading at approximately $195 per token. This price is crucial for calculating validator operational costs, as vote expenses scale directly with SOL's market value.

The Math That Matters:

• Daily vote costs: ~1 SOL = ~$195/day

• Monthly vote costs: ~30 SOL = ~$5,850/month

• Annual vote costs: ~365 SOL = ~$71,175/year

Suddenly, that $818-982/month hardware cost looks modest by comparison. Vote transactions represent the elephant in the room when it comes to validator economics, often accounting for 85-90% of total operational costs at current SOL prices.

#The Solana Foundation Delegation Program

This is where the Solana Foundation Delegation Program (SFDP) becomes critical, especially for new validators trying to break into the ecosystem.

Think of SFDP as Solana's way of subsidizing network decentralization. The Foundation recognizes that vote costs create a massive barrier to entry—new validators can't earn rewards without stake, but they can't survive vote costs without rewards. It's a classic chicken-and-egg problem.

How SFDP Changes the Game:

The program provides two crucial benefits:

1. Stake Delegation: The SFDP matches external stakes at a 1:1 ratio, up to a 100,000 SOL cap from the Foundation, and allocates a base amount of around 40,000 SOL per participant initially

2. Vote Cost Coverage: The Solana Foundation will cover the voting costs of validators for the first year, with a phased reduction: 100% for the first three months, then 75%, 50%, and 25% in subsequent quarters, ceasing after 12 months

The Vote Cost Subsidy Schedule:

• Months 1-3: 100% of vote costs covered (you pay $0 for votes)

• Months 4-6: 75% of vote costs covered (you pay ~$1,463/month)

• Months 7-9: 50% of vote costs covered (you pay ~$2,925/month)

• Months 10-12: 25% of vote costs covered (you pay ~$4,388/month)

• After Year 1: Full vote costs transfer to you (~$5,850/month)

This graduated approach gives new validators time to attract additional stake delegations and build revenue before shouldering full operational costs. Without SFDP, starting a validator would require either massive capital reserves or immediate access to significant stake delegations—both unlikely for new entrants.

Eligibility Requirements:

Validators must meet criteria including testnet participation, vote credits performance, maximum 5% commission rate, self-stake requirements of 100 SOL minimum, software version compliance, acceptable skip rate, and metric reporting.

It's important to note that participation in the SFDP is not mandatory for running a validator on Solana, as the validator set remains permissionless, and the majority of successful "community" validators do not have Foundation-delegated stake.

The Foundation has also introduced performance-based criteria. If you do not receive stake on testnet for 10 epochs, you will also not receive stake on mainnet beta, and if you do not receive stake on mainnet beta for 10 epochs, you will be rejected from the program.

Learn more about SFDP eligibility and application →

For detailed analysis of validator economics and SFDP's impact:

• Solana Validator Economics - A Primer

• Solana Foundation Delegation Criteria

#Monthly Cost Breakdown by Node Type

Now that we understand the full picture, let's break down actual monthly costs using current market prices.

#Validator Node Total Costs

For Established Validators (No SFDP):

For New SFDP-Eligible Validators (Agave 384GB Example):

SFDP Impact: The subsidy reduces Year 1 costs by approximately $42,000-45,000 compared to running without Foundation support. This transforms validator economics from "financially prohibitive for new entrants" to "challenging but achievable with proper planning and performance."

#RPC Node Total Costs

RPC nodes avoid vote costs entirely, making operational expenses entirely predictable:

#Additional Operational Considerations

#Monitoring & Tooling

• Monitoring Stack: $0-200/month (Prometheus, Grafana, or hosted solutions)

• Alerting: $0-50/month (PagerDuty or similar)

• Log Management: $0-100/month (optional)

• Total: $0-350/month, depending on scale

#Bandwidth Usage

Estimating egress data bandwidth cost is dependent on the amount of stake, as a higher stake weight equates to being the slot leader more often, which results in more data to propagate and more transactions to forward to future leaders.

The included 100TB egress covers typical validator operations. Bandwidth providers like Latitude charge per TB on egress on the order of $0.64 - $3.60 per TB, depending on the region, while AWS egress costs can be over $70 per TB. Cherry's included bandwidth represents significant value.

#Total Cost of Ownership Summary

Validator (Established, No SFDP) - Annual:

• Hardware: $9,814-11,780/year (depending on Agave vs Firedancer)

• Vote costs: ~$70,200/year

• Tooling: $0-4,200/year

• Total: ~$80,000-86,000/year

Validator (New, SFDP Year 1 Average):

• Average monthly across first year: ~$3,262/month

• Total Year 1: ~$39,144

• Savings vs non-SFDP: ~$40,000-47,000 in Year 1

RPC Node (Production):

• Hardware: $817-1,461/month

• Tooling: $0-350/month

• Total: $817-1,811/month (~$9,804-21,732/year)

These costs remain fixed regardless of request volume. For RPC nodes, the break-even point versus managed providers typically occurs around 1-2 billion monthly requests. For validators, dedicated infrastructure is the only option since managed providers don't offer validator services.

#Conclusion

Running a Solana node, whether as a validator or RPC endpoint, is far from a plug-and-play task. It demands serious investment in infrastructure, consistent monitoring, and an in-depth understanding of how the Solana network functions under the hood.

From high RAM requirements and vote transaction costs to strict networking needs and hardware reliability, the cost of running a node can easily scale into thousands of dollars monthly, especially for validators not backed by the Solana Foundation Delegation Program (SFDP). However, with careful planning, the right deployment strategy (self-hosted, bare-metal), and programs like SFDP reducing first-year costs, it’s possible to build a sustainable and scalable Solana infrastructure.

For developers or startups, leveraging managed RPC providers may offer a faster and simpler path to launch. But for high-performance apps, DeFi platforms, or validators looking to maximize rewards and control, investing in bare-metal hardware is often worth the long-term value.

Ultimately, the best decision depends on your specific needs: performance, scale, budget, and operational capacity. By understanding the costs, trade-offs, and technical realities upfront, you’ll be better equipped to build and maintain a reliable Solana-powered backend.