net_peerCount

net_peerCount returns the number of peers currently connected to the node as a hex-encoded integer — for example "0x1a" for 26 peers. On Arbitrum One (chain ID 42161), the Optimistic Rollup that settles to Ethereum and meters gas in ETH, Nitro nodes connect to peers to receive the sequencer's transaction feed and propagate L2 blocks, so the peer count is a quick gauge of how well a node is wired into the network. Query it against https://arbitrum.therpc.io/YOUR_API_KEY with no parameters; remember to convert the hex string to decimal before using it in dashboards or thresholds.

Use cases

• Monitor node connectivity in infrastructure health dashboards, plotting the connected-peer count for your Arbitrum One nodes over time.
• Detect isolated nodes that risk falling behind on L2 block propagation — a peer count that drops toward zero on a self-run Nitro node is an early warning that it may stop tracking the Arbitrum sequencer.

Parameters

This method takes no parameters. Pass an empty array [].

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": "net_peerCount",
7    "params": [],
8    "id": 1
9  }'

Try it live in the Arbitrum One playground.

Errors & troubleshooting

Common pitfalls

• Managed provider endpoints return the peer count of whichever backend node serves the call, not a figure tied to your account or request — so the number reflects the provider's infrastructure, not your application.
• A low peer count on a managed Arbitrum One node does not necessarily mean trouble for your RPC calls; provider nodes are often connected to a small, curated set of trusted peers and stay fully in sync regardless. Use it as a signal, not an alarm, unless you operate the node yourself.

Supported networks

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

See also

• net_listening
• net_version

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":"net_peerCount","params":[]}'