Compute Units

Compute Unit (CU) Pricing Model

BlockDB measures API usage in Compute Units (CU), weighted by the computational complexity of each API endpoint. Your custom plan includes a monthly CU allowance sized to your workload.

How Compute Units Work

Each API request consumes a fixed number of Compute Units determined by the data layer — not by result size or pagination depth. Your monthly CU allowance (cu_limit, cu_used, cu_remaining on GET /usage) is account-wide and shared by every API key—adding keys does not create separate CU pools. The same applies to RPS; see Rate limiting.

Level	CU / request	Endpoint Family	Endpoint
L1	1 CU	Raw history, blocks summary, lineage (parents), verification, JSON-RPC	`evm/raw/blocks`
			`evm/raw/blocks-summary`
			`evm/raw/transactions`
			`evm/raw/logs`
			`evm/raw/contracts`
			`evm/raw/function-results`
			`evm/raw/internal-transactions`
			`evm/lineage/parents`
			`evm/verify/receipt-root`
			`evm/verify/logs-bloom`
			`evm/rpc`
L2	40 CU	Entities, lineage (record)	`evm/lineage/record`
			`evm/entities/tokens/erc20`
			`evm/entities/tokens/erc721`
			`evm/entities/tokens/erc1155`
			`evm/entities/pools`
			`evm/entities/pools/fee-terms`
L3	80 CU	Reserves, transfers, swaps, prints, flash loans	`evm/reserves`
			`evm/reserves/liquidity-distribution`
			`evm/transfers/token-transfers`
			`evm/swaps/fees`
			`evm/prices/spot/crypto/prints`
			`evm/flash-loans/prints`
L4	80 CU	Per-pool OHLC/VWAP	`evm/prices/spot/crypto/vwap`
			`evm/prices/spot/crypto/ohlc`
			`evm/yields`
L5	80 CU	Cross-pool VWAP	`evm/prices/spot/crypto/vwap-aggregate`
L6	100 CU	Token-to-fiat VWAP	`evm/prices/spot/fiat/vwap`
L7	200 CU	Pool TVL USD	`evm/tvl`
L8	300 CU	Arbitrage path topology & path status	`evm/arb/paths`
			`evm/arb/path-status`
L9	1000 CU	Arbitrage opportunities	`evm/arb/opportunities`

CU consumption is calculated per request. Result size and pagination do not affect CU cost — only the endpoint level determines the CU value.

CU Billing & Tracking

How CU Consumption is Tracked

Query the GET /usage endpoint to retrieve your plan, cu_used, cu_remaining, cu_limit, cu_reset_at, and rate_limit_rps. This endpoint is free to use and does not consume compute units.

The /usage endpoint provides comprehensive usage data including consumption by dataset, billing period information, and rate limits.

Overage Handling

When you exceed your monthly CU allowance:

Hard limits: API requests are blocked once your CU allowance is exhausted
Additional capacity: Contact support@blockdb.io to add CUs or resize your plan
No automatic overage charges: You decide when to add capacity—no unexpected charges

Once your CU allowance is exhausted, API requests will return 429 Too Many Requests until additional CUs are added to your plan. Plan your usage accordingly to avoid service interruptions.

Pricing Examples

Example 1: Raw block query (L1)

POST /evm/raw/blocks
CU cost: 1 CU

Example 2: ERC-20 token lookup (L2)

POST /evm/entities/tokens/erc20
CU cost: 40 CU

Example 3: Fiat VWAP price (L5, dataset `0605`, `b0605_token_to_fiat_vwap`)

POST /evm/prices/spot/fiat/vwap
CU cost: 100 CU

Example 4: Multi-step analysis workflow

POST /evm/raw/blocks              (find block range)  →    1 CU  [L1]
POST /evm/raw/logs                (filter events)     →    1 CU  [L1]
POST /evm/reserves       (pool snapshot)     →   80 CU  [L3]
POST /evm/prices/spot/crypto/ohlc (crypto OHLC)       →   80 CU  [L4]
POST /evm/prices/spot/fiat/vwap   (fiat benchmark)    →  100 CU  [L5]
POST /evm/tvl                     (pool TVL USD)      →  200 CU  [L6]
POST /evm/arb/opportunities       (arb opportunities) →  1000 CU  [L8]
                                                Total: 1462 CU

Overview

SDKs

Account & Usage

EVM Endpoints

Enumerations

Compute Unit (CU) Pricing Model

How Compute Units Work

CU Billing & Tracking

How CU Consumption is Tracked

Overage Handling

Pricing Examples

Example 1: Raw block query (L1)

Example 2: ERC-20 token lookup (L2)

Example 3: Fiat VWAP price (L5, dataset `0605`, `b0605_token_to_fiat_vwap`)

Example 4: Multi-step analysis workflow

See Also

​Compute Unit (CU) Pricing Model

​How Compute Units Work

​CU Billing & Tracking

​How CU Consumption is Tracked

​Overage Handling

​Pricing Examples

​Example 1: Raw block query (L1)

​Example 2: ERC-20 token lookup (L2)

​Example 3: Fiat VWAP price (L5, dataset 0605, b0605_token_to_fiat_vwap)

​Example 4: Multi-step analysis workflow

​See Also

Compute Unit (CU) Pricing Model

How Compute Units Work

CU Billing & Tracking

How CU Consumption is Tracked

Overage Handling

Pricing Examples

Example 1: Raw block query (L1)

Example 2: ERC-20 token lookup (L2)

Example 3: Fiat VWAP price (L5, dataset `0605`, `b0605_token_to_fiat_vwap`)

Example 4: Multi-step analysis workflow

See Also