decoderawtransaction

decoderawtransaction parses a serialized Bitcoin transaction hex and returns its structure as a JSON object — version, size, vsize, weight, locktime, and the full vin[] and vout[] arrays — along with the computed txid. It is a stateless decoder: it reads only the bytes you hand it and performs no lookup against the chain or mempool, so it works for transactions that have never been broadcast. Outputs report amounts in BTC. Call it on the Bitcoin JSON-RPC endpoint at https://bitcoin.therpc.io/YOUR_API_KEY to turn opaque hex into a readable transaction.

Use cases

• Inspect a transaction built with createrawtransaction to confirm its inputs and outputs before you sign or broadcast it.
• Decode a raw tx hex received off-chain — for example from a counterparty or a PSBT workflow — to verify what it actually spends and pays.
• Read the computed txid of an unsigned transaction so you can track or reference it before it ever hits the network.

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": "decoderawtransaction",
8  "params": [
9    "0200000001abcd...00000000",
10    false
11  ]
12}'

Errors & troubleshooting

Common pitfalls

• Decoding is purely offline: the method never resolves the inputs being spent, so it cannot report prevout values or the transaction fee. Use getrawtransaction at verbosity 2 if you need fee and prevout data.
• Some hex strings are ambiguous between the legacy and segwit serialization formats. If auto-detection misreads the bytes, set iswitness explicitly to force the correct interpretation.

Supported networks

• Mainnet
• Testnet

See also

• getrawtransaction
• decodescript
• createrawtransaction