eth_getBalance

eth_getBalance returns the native-token balance of an account at a specified block. On Arbitrum One the native token is ETH (used to pay gas on the rollup), and the balance comes back as hex-encoded wei. Query any address against latest, a named tag, or a historical block height through https://arbitrum.therpc.io/YOUR_API_KEY (chain ID 42161).

Use cases

• Display an account's ETH balance in a wallet UI for Arbitrum One.
• Verify an account holds enough ETH to cover gas before estimating or submitting a transaction to the sequencer.
• Poll balance changes to detect incoming ETH payments or bridge withdrawals landing on the L2.
• Audit a balance at a specific historical Arbitrum One block for accounting or forensics (requires an archive node).

Parameters

Response

Example request

1curl https://arbitrum.therpc.io/YOUR_API_KEY \
2  -X POST \
3  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
4  -d '{
5    "jsonrpc": "2.0",
6    "method": "eth_getBalance",
7    "params": [
8        "0x0000000000000000000000000000000000000000",
9        "latest"
10      ],
11    "id": 1
12  }'

Try it live in the Arbitrum One playground.

Errors & troubleshooting

Common pitfalls

• Never run Number() on the raw hex value — ETH balances above 2^53 wei lose precision; always parse with BigInt(value) and divide by 10n**18n for whole ETH.
• A balance read at latest reflects the sequencer's soft confirmation and is not yet final — for a system of record, read at "finalized", since Arbitrum finality follows the L1 challenge window.
• This returns only the native ETH balance; an ERC-20 token balance (USDC, ARB, etc.) requires an eth_call to that token's balanceOf.

Supported networks

• Mainnet — Chain ID: 42161
• Sepolia — Chain ID: 421614

See also

• eth_getTransactionCount
• eth_call
• eth_getProof

1curl https://arbitrum.therpc.io/YOUR_API_KEY \
2  -X POST \
3  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
4  -d '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":1,"method":"eth_getBalance","params":["0x0000000000000000000000000000000000000000","latest"]}'