eth_getBalance

eth_getBalance returns the ETH balance of an account on Ethereum mainnet, measured at a block you pick. The value comes back as wei — the smallest unit of Ether, with 18 decimals — so a balance of one ETH reads as 0xde0b6b3a7640000. Pass an address plus a block tag: latest for the current head, finalized for a value that can't be reorged, or a specific hex height for a point-in-time read. Send it to https://ethereum.therpc.io/YOUR_API_KEY (chain ID 1). This reports only native ETH; a token's balance lives in that token's own contract, not here.

Use cases

Wallet display. Render the ETH figure in a wallet header, converting wei to Ether for the user.
Affordability check. Confirm an account holds enough ETH to cover value plus gas before you bother running eth_estimateGas or signing.
Payment detection. Poll the balance at latest and react when it rises to spot an incoming deposit.
Historical audit. Read the balance at a fixed past height for accounting or forensics — that requires an archive node, which is why pruned-state queries can fail.

Parameters

#	Name	Type	Required	Description
1	`address`	string (hex)	Yes	The account address to query.
2	`blockTag`	string	No	Block at which to read the balance.Default: `latest`

Response

Type	Description
string (hex)	Hex-encoded balance in wei. Convert with BigInt(value); divide by 10n**18n to get the chain's base unit.

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": "eth_getBalance",
7    "params": [
8        "0xd8dA6BF26964aF9D7eEd9e03E53415D37aA96045",
9        "latest"
10      ],
11    "id": 1
12  }'

Try it live in the Ethereum playground.

Errors & troubleshooting

Code	Message	Cause
`-32602`	`Invalid params`	Address is malformed, missing 0x prefix, or block tag is unrecognised.
`-32000`	`Missing trie node`	Queried a historical block that the node has pruned (non-archive node).

Common pitfalls

A wei balance routinely exceeds 2^53, so Number(hex) silently loses precision. Always parse with BigInt(value) and divide by 10n**18n to reach whole ETH.
A balance at latest sits at the head and can shift in a short reorg before justification. For a ledger or system of record, read at finalized so the figure can't be revised out from under you.
This is native ETH only. To get an account's USDC, DAI, or any ERC-20 holding you call balanceOf on the token contract via eth_call — this method never sees token balances.

Supported networks

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