net_peerCount

net_peerCount reports how many peers an Ethereum execution node is currently connected to on the devp2p network. Those peers are how the node receives new mainnet blocks every 12-second slot and learns about pending ETH transactions before they are mined, so the count is a direct read on how well-connected the node is. Call it against https://ethereum.therpc.io/YOUR_API_KEY on chain ID 1 and the answer comes back as a hex-encoded integer, for example "0x1a" for 26 peers. Decode it to base 10 yourself; the JSON-RPC layer does not do that for you.

Use cases

Plot peer count over time in an infrastructure dashboard to track how healthy each Ethereum node's connectivity stays.
Alert on nodes whose peer count drops near zero, since a poorly connected node lags on block propagation and can fall behind the mainnet head.

Parameters

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

Response

Type	Description
string	Hex-encoded peer count, e.g. `"0x1a"` = 26 peers.

Example request

1curl https://ethereum.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 Ethereum playground.

Errors & troubleshooting

Common pitfalls

On a managed endpoint, the number reflects the backend node that served your request, not anything tied to your account or your individual call. Two consecutive requests can even hit different nodes with different counts.
A modest count on a managed Ethereum node is rarely a problem. Provider infrastructure stays in sync with the chain through other means, so a low number here does not mean your eth_call or eth_getBalance results are stale.

Supported networks

Mainnet — Chain ID: 1
Sepolia — Chain ID: 11155111