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Node Endpoints

Ideally, one may run their own node when interacting with the Polkadot network via Polkadot-JS Apps or other UIs and programmatic methods. Another option would be to connect to one of the several public endpoints provided by infrastructure and API service providers. For development convenience, Parity Tech maintains archive nodes for Polkadot, Kusama, and their test networks with public endpoints. These endpoints can be used with Polkadot-JS API to interact with their respective chains. The tables below list these endpoints.

Network Endpoints​

Endpoints for all production and test networks are listed on the Polkadot-JS UI which are accessed from here. Endpoints for Polkadot Relay Chain and Kusama Relay Chain, parachains, and Paseo test network are maintained by the community. System Chains as well as Westend and Rococo test network endpoints maintained by Parity Technologies are listed below:

NetworkWSS Endpoint
Asset Hubwss://polkadot-asset-hub-rpc.polkadot.io
Bridge Hubwss://polkadot-bridge-hub-rpc.polkadot.io
Collectiveswss://polkadot-collectives-rpc.polkadot.io
People Chainwss://polkadot-people-rpc.polkadot.io

Example usage with Polkadot-JS API​

To connect to the Parity node for the Polkadot Asset Hub, use the endpoint in your JavaScript apps like so:

// Using the Polkadot Mainnet Endpoint
const { ApiPromise, WsProvider } = require('@polkadot/api');
async () => {
  // Construct a provider with the endpoint URL
  const provider = new WsProvider('wss://polkadot-asset-hub-rpc.polkadot.io');
  // Create an API instance for Polkadot
  const api = await ApiPromise.create({ provider });
  // ...

Third Party Providers​

There are a number of third-party providers of RPC infrastructure to the Polkadot and Kusama communities, commonly providing access to multiple networks and parachains in a single service. They provide additional services such as higher rate limits, potentially more reliable and scalable service, and additional metrics.

note

The list of third party RPC endpoints above for Polkadot and Kusama is directly fetched from Polkadot-JS UI