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The getBalance RPC method is a straightforward way to find out the native SOL balance of any account on the Solana blockchain. It returns the balance in lamports (1 SOL = 1,000,000,000 lamports). This method is more lightweight than getAccountInfo if you only need the SOL balance and no other account details.

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Main Use Case

  • Quickly Checking an Account’s SOL Holdings: The primary use is to determine how much SOL an account (wallet, program, etc.) holds.

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Parameters

  1. publicKey (string, required): The base-58 encoded public key of the account to query.
  2. config (object, optional): A configuration object with the following fields:
    • commitment (string, optional): Specifies the commitment level to use for the query. Defaults to finalized.
      • finalized: The node will query the most recent block confirmed by the supermajority of the cluster as having reached maximum lockout.
      • confirmed: The node will query the most recent block that has been voted on by a supermajority of the cluster.
      • processed: The node will query its most recent block. Note that the block may not be complete.
    • minContextSlot (number, optional): The minimum slot that the request can be evaluated at.

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Response

The result field of the JSON-RPC response will be an object containing:
  • context (object):
    • slot (number): The slot at which the balance was retrieved.
    • apiVersion (string, optional): The RPC API version (may not be present from all nodes).
  • value (number): The balance of the account in lamports (unsigned 64-bit integer).
If the account does not exist on-chain, getBalance will typically return a value of 0 lamports.

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Example: Fetching an Account’s Balance

Let’s check the SOL balance of the Serum Program V3 ID (9xQeWvG816bUx9EPjHmaT23yvVM2ZWbrrpZb9PusVFin) on mainnet. This program account itself holds SOL for rent exemption. Note: Replace YOUR_API_KEY with your actual Helius API key in the examples below. 
curl https://mainnet.helius-rpc.com/?api-key=YOUR_API_KEY -X POST -H "Content-Type: application/json" -d \
'{
  "jsonrpc": "2.0",
  "id": 1,
  "method": "getBalance",
  "params": [
    "9xQeWvG816bUx9EPjHmaT23yvVM2ZWbrrpZb9PusVFin"
  ]
}'

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Developer Tips

  • Simplicity for SOL Balance: If you only need an account’s SOL balance and no other on-chain data (like owner, data, or executable status), getBalance is more efficient than getAccountInfo as it fetches less data.
  • Non-Existent Accounts: If an account does not exist on-chain (has never been initialized or had SOL), getBalance will return 0. This can be a quick way to check for account existence if you only care about its SOL balance.
  • Lamports vs. SOL: Remember that the balance is returned in lamports. You’ll need to divide by LAMPORTS_PER_SOL (1,000,000,000) to convert it to SOL.
  • Commitment Levels: The choice of commitment can affect how quickly you get the balance and how confirmed that balance is. For most UI display purposes, confirmed offers a good balance. For critical financial transactions, finalized provides the highest assurance. See Solana Commitment Levels for detailed information.
  • Batching with getMultipleAccounts: While getBalance is for a single account, if you need balances for many accounts, using getMultipleAccounts and then extracting the lamport balance from each account’s info can be more performant than many individual getBalance calls.

getAccountInfo

Get full account details including data, owner, and executable status

getMultipleAccounts

Batch fetch multiple accounts in a single request