createrawtransaction

createrawtransaction assembles an unsigned Bitcoin transaction from a list of UTXO inputs and a set of outputs, returning the serialized result as a hex string. Because Bitcoin uses the UTXO model rather than accounts, you reference the exact txid and vout you intend to spend, and you specify each output as an address paying an amount of BTC. The call is pure construction: it does not select coins, fund the transaction, sign it, or touch the network. Send the request to the Bitcoin JSON-RPC endpoint at https://bitcoin.therpc.io/YOUR_API_KEY, then sign the returned hex elsewhere — typically in an offline wallet — before broadcasting.

Use cases

• Construct a transaction server-side from chosen UTXOs, then hand the hex to an offline or hardware signer that never exposes its keys to the endpoint.
• Embed arbitrary data on-chain by adding a { "data": "<hex>" } entry to the outputs, which Core encodes as a provably-unspendable OP_RETURN output.
• Assemble an opt-in RBF (BIP125) transaction by passing replaceable as true, so the signed result can later be fee-bumped and rebroadcast.

Parameters

Response

Example request

1curl https://bitcoin.therpc.io/YOUR_API_KEY \
2  -X POST \
3  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
4  -d '{
5  "jsonrpc": "1.0",
6  "id": "therpc",
7  "method": "createrawtransaction",
8  "params": [
9    [
10      {
11        "txid": "4a5e1e4baab89f3a32518a88c31bc87f618f76673e2cc77ab2127b7afdeda33b",
12        "vout": 0
13      }
14    ],
15    {
16      "1A1zP1eP5QGefi2DMPTfTL5SLmv7DivfNa": 0.001
17    },
18    0,
19    false
20  ]
21}'

Errors & troubleshooting

Common pitfalls

• Output amounts are denominated in BTC, not satoshis — passing 0.001 means 0.001 BTC (100,000 sat). A wrong unit produces a valid-looking but incorrect transaction with no error.
• This method neither funds nor signs the transaction: it trusts the inputs you supply and never adds a change output for you. Compute change explicitly, then sign the hex in a separate step before broadcasting.

Supported networks

• Mainnet
• Testnet

See also

• decoderawtransaction
• sendrawtransaction
• testmempoolaccept