Solscan

Solscan is a block explorer and data platform for the Solana blockchain: a website at solscan.io where anyone can paste a wallet address, transaction signature, token mint or program ID and read what happened on-chain, decoded into plain language. It launched in 2021 and has been owned by Etherscan, the leading Ethereum explorer, since January 2024. Alongside the free explorer, Solscan sells a paid Pro API for developers, offers a white-label explorer service, and, as of September 2026, ships an MCP server and CLI so AI agents can query Solana data directly. In August 2026 the Solana Foundation named Solscan an official data provider for its public dashboard at solana.com/data.

How Solscan works: reading Solana wallets, transactions and tokens

Solscan indexes every block on Solana mainnet and presents each account, transaction, token and program as its own page. The search bar accepts addresses, signatures, token names, programs and name-service domains, per Solscan's documentation.

A transaction page shows the result, fee and priority fee, the programs called, and a summary of which assets moved between which accounts. That summary matters on Solana, where a single swap can touch a dozen programs and produce dozens of balance changes; Solscan's "TX Map" view draws those flows as a diagram. A wallet page lists SOL and SPL token holdings, transfers, DeFi activity and stake accounts. A token page shows supply, holders, top traders and market data, with the mint address, decimals and authorities.

Solscan's labels and parsed summaries are its own interpretation of raw instructions. They are usually right, but the raw instruction data on the same page is the ground truth when a summary looks wrong.

Solscan also adds parsing support for new protocols as they launch. On 16 September 2026, for example, it added StonkFun launchpad support so tokens launched there can be traced across program, token and transaction pages.

Solscan analytics dashboards: fee tracker, stablecoins and network stats

Solscan runs three dashboards documented in its knowledge base: Solana Network Statistics (total transactions, TPS, total fees, blocks, validators and vote counts), a Fee Tracker that compares programs, account usage and fee mechanisms, and a Stablecoin Dashboard covering market cap, holders, transaction counts, daily volume and exchange inflows and outflows. Separate DeFi and NFT dashboards cover protocol activity, NFT collections and marketplace volume and listings.

Helius's survey of Solana block explorers singles out Solscan's fee tracker, which shows minimum, average and maximum priority fees, and its whale tracking of large transfers, trades and stake accounts.

The same data feeds outside Solscan. The Solana Foundation's August 2026 ecosystem roundup says Solscan's integration supplies network, staking, stablecoin and DeFi data to the solana.com/data dashboard.

Solscan account features: watchlists, labels and CSV export

A free Solscan account adds a watchlist, personal labels for addresses and a notification bot, per Solscan's documentation. The explorer also offers CSV report downloads of an account's activity, useful for tax tools and bookkeeping, and an "Interact With Program" tool for working with on-chain programs from the browser.

Solscan API: free key, Pro API pricing and the Lite plan

Solscan's API comes in a free tier and paid Pro plans. Both free and Pro API keys work with Solscan's MCP server and CLI, though which tools return data depends on the plan. Keys are generated from the API Management section of a Solscan profile after subscribing at solscan.io/apis.

The entry paid tier is the Pro API Lite plan: $49 a month for 20 million compute units and 1,000 requests per 60 seconds. Lite covers most Pro endpoints but excludes account metadata, the "funded by" lookup, funding-out transfers, the price OHLCV endpoint and all multi-item endpoints.

The newest Pro endpoint is Market Price OHLCV, launched on 22 September 2026: open, high, low, close and volume candles for any Solana token, from one-minute to yearly bars, with history back to a token's launch day.

The Pro API FAQ sets two limits worth knowing before paying: the API covers mainnet only (no testnet), and Solscan offers no refunds on API plans once purchased. Billing runs through Stripe.

Solscan MCP server and CLI for AI agents

Solscan's MCP server, at mcp.solscan.io/mcp, connects AI agents such as Claude Desktop, Claude Code, Codex Desktop and Codex CLI to live, decoded Solana data. Its tools cover account data, token information, trading data, account metadata, blockchain data and transaction decoding.

The Solscan CLI (npm install -g solscan-cli, Node.js 18 or newer) queries the same API from a terminal, script or CI job, with structured output for agents. Both need an API key; free and Pro keys work. In September 2026 Solscan described the MCP server, CLI and reusable "Skills" as its push to make Solana data "natively agent-ready".

Solscan Explorer-as-a-Service and Anchor IDL program pages

Explorer-as-a-Service (EaaS) is Solscan's white-label product: a hosted explorer under a customer's own brand and domain, with Solscan running the indexing, search, APIs, analytics, labels and program verification. It suits teams that want an explorer for their network or app without running the indexing infrastructure.

For program developers, Solscan supports Anchor verified programs. When a program's Anchor IDL is published on-chain (anchor idl init), Solscan displays the IDL on the program page and uses it to decode that program's instructions into readable names, with a toggle between raw and table views. Programs without a published IDL appear as undecoded instruction data.

Solscan also supports teams through the Solana hackathon circuit: for the Road to Colosseum programme it offered free Pro API Lite access from 14 September to 5 October 2026, plus 30 days for teams that qualify for the global hackathon.

Who should use Solscan

Solscan fits anyone on Solana mainnet who needs to check whether a transaction landed, what a wallet holds, or who holds a token. That covers most wallet users and traders, and no account or wallet connection is needed for lookups.

Traders use the token holder and top-trader views, whale tracking and fee tracker. Accountants and tax filers use CSV exports. Developers use the Pro API, MCP server or CLI when they want indexed, decoded data without running their own indexer; the free key suits prototyping, and the $49 Lite plan suits small production apps that do not need OHLCV or bulk endpoints.

Solscan fits less well for devnet and testnet API work, which the Pro API does not cover, and for validator operators and protocol engineers who need feature-gate status or raw transaction inspection, where the Solana Foundation's explorer is the reference.

Is Solscan safe? Risks, phishing clones and data limits

Solscan is safe to use as a read-only explorer: looking up an address or transaction needs no wallet connection, no account and no private key. The main risk sits around Solscan rather than inside it. Fake Solscan sites and ads try to get users to connect a wallet or sign a transaction; Web3 anti-scam service Scam Sniffer warned of a phishing ad impersonating Solscan at the top of Google results, built to "drain your wallet through malicious transaction signatures". The real explorer is solscan.io, and an explorer never needs a signature or seed phrase.

Spam is the second issue. Scammers airdrop junk tokens and NFTs to wallets, and the links in their metadata lead to drainer sites. A spam token showing in a wallet on Solscan does not mean the wallet was compromised, but clicking through its links can lead to one that does.

Solscan runs no on-chain programs of its own, so there is no smart-contract or upgrade-authority risk. The risks are those of a centralised, closed-source data service: Solscan's labels, prices and parsed summaries can be wrong or late, the site can be unavailable, and API customers depend on one company's indexer and pricing, with no refunds on paid plans.

Solscan vs Solana Explorer, Orb and other alternatives

Solscan is the default for most everyday lookups, token research and analytics; the alternatives win on specific jobs. Helius's explorer survey says Solscan "quickly became the dominant explorer by shipping advanced developer tools, clearer transaction summaries, and more helpful dashboards".

• Solana Explorer (explorer.solana.com), maintained by the Solana Foundation, is minimal and official. It shows feature gates and activation epochs, has a raw transaction inspector, and covers devnet and testnet, which makes it the better choice for protocol and debugging work.
• Orb, built by Helius hSOL$125.58+2.6%, launched in October 2025 as a free explorer with AI-written transaction explanations, heatmaps and archival "time machine" search across mainnet, devnet and testnet. Readers who find Solscan dense often prefer it.
• SolanaFM was a popular explorer from 2021, but Helius describes it as "largely unmaintained" since Jupiter JUP$0.312+3.9% acquired it in September 2024.
• Solana Beach focuses on validators and network economics. For choosing a validator to stake with, Solana Compass (this site) publishes validator comparisons by commission, performance and stake.
• Etherscan is Solscan's sister product for Ethereum and EVM chains; it does not cover Solana.

Etherscan ownership and Solscan history

Solscan was built by an independent team and launched in 2021. Etherscan announced its acquisition of Solscan on 3 January 2024. At the time Solscan averaged about three million monthly users, according to SiliconANGLE's report. Etherscan founder and CEO Matthew Tan praised the Solscan team's work making blockchain data accessible and user-friendly.

Since the acquisition Solscan has moved developers onto a v2 Pro API with tiered plans, added the $49 Lite plan, and in 2026 shipped the OHLCV endpoint, MCP server and CLI.