getblockcount

getblockcount returns the height of the Bitcoin chain tip as a plain integer — the number of blocks on the most-work fully-validated branch, counting the genesis block as height 0. Since Bitcoin mines a new block about every ten minutes under Proof-of-Work, this number ticks up steadily and is the value you subtract against to count confirmations on a BTC payment. Call it against https://bitcoin.therpc.io/YOUR_API_KEY as the cheapest way to ask "how tall is the chain right now."

Use cases

• Read the current tip height as the basis for confirmation counting on incoming BTC.
• Track new blocks by polling the height and acting when it increments.
• Compute a transaction's confirmation depth as height − tx block height + 1.

Parameters

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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": "getblockcount",
8  "params": []
9}'

Errors & troubleshooting

Common pitfalls

• The returned height tracks the tip of the most-work chain, so during a short reorg it can actually drop by a block before climbing again — never assume the height only ever increases.

Supported networks

• Mainnet
• Testnet

See also

• getbestblockhash
• getblockhash
• getblockchaininfo