txpool_status

The txpool_status method returns the number of transactions in the pending and queued states in the transaction pool. This method provides a quick overview of the transaction pool size and network congestion without retrieving detailed transaction data.

Use Cases

• Monitoring transaction pool size for network health checks
• Detecting network congestion to adjust gas prices
• Node performance monitoring in infrastructure setups
• Transaction backlog assessment for timing critical operations
• Estimating transaction inclusion time for user feedback
• Mempool analytics for research and optimization
• Gas price strategy optimization for faster confirmations
• Visualizing network activity in dashboards
• Detecting unusual transaction patterns
• Building gas price recommendation engines

Method Details

This method requires no parameters and returns a count of transactions in each state.

Response Example

{
	"jsonrpc": "2.0",
	"id": 1,
	"result": {
		"pending": "0x21c",
		"queued": "0xa5"
	}
}

Understanding the Response

The response contains two hexadecimal values:

• pending: Number of pending transactions (e.g., "0x21c" = 540 transactions)
• queued: Number of queued transactions (e.g., "0xa5" = 165 transactions)

To convert hexadecimal to decimal:

• "0x21c" → 540 (pending transactions)
• "0xa5" → 165 (queued transactions)

Transaction States

• Pending: Transactions eligible for inclusion in the next block

• Have valid nonces (equal to the sender's current nonce)

• Meet all other validity criteria

• Ready to be mined

• Queued: Transactions not yet eligible for execution

• May have future nonces (higher than sender's current nonce + pending count)

• May have other constraints preventing immediate execution

• Waiting for prerequisites to be met

Network Congestion Indicators

The transaction pool counts can indicate network congestion:

Note: These are approximate ranges and can vary based on network conditions.

Important Notes

• This method is primarily supported by Geth clients
• Not all Ethereum client implementations support the txpool namespace
• The counts are returned as hexadecimal strings, not decimal numbers
• A high pending count might indicate network congestion or low gas prices
• A high queued count might indicate many future transactions or improper nonce sequencing
• These counts can change rapidly with each new block and incoming transaction
• During periods of high activity, these numbers can spike significantly
• Zero values for both indicate an empty transaction pool or a newly synced node

See also

• txpool_inspect - Returns a text summary of the transaction pool
• txpool_content - Returns detailed information about all transactions in the pool