Get Started with Blockfrost

Blockfrost provides API to access and process information stored on the Cardano blockchain. The basic tier is free and allows 50,000 requests per day.

Sign in

Sign in on Blockfrost with your GitHub account. No registration required. Enter a project name and select Cardano mainnet or Cardano testnet, depending on your needs.

Get your API key

After clicking on Save Project you will immediately get your API KEY. Save it. You will need this key for every request.

Query the latest epoch

Send your first request to get data about the latest epoch. Don't forget to replace 1234567890with your API KEY.

curl

curl -H 'project_id: 1234567890' https://cardano-mainnet.blockfrost.io/api/v0/epochs/latest

wget

wget --header='project_id: 1234567890' -qO- https://cardano-mainnet.blockfrost.io/api/v0/epochs/latest

PHP

$headers = array('http'=> array(
                     'method' => 'GET',
                     'header' => 'project_id: 1234567890'
                    )
                );
$context = stream_context_create($headers);
$json = file_get_contents('https://cardano-mainnet.blockfrost.io/api/v0/epochs/latest', false, $context);
$parsedJson = json_decode($json);

If you have done everything correctly you will get a response in JSON format, similar to this:

{
  "epoch": 225,
  "start_time": 1603403091,
  "end_time": 1603835086,
  "first_block_time": 1603403092,
  "last_block_time": 1603835084,
  "block_count": 21298,
  "tx_count": 17856,
  "output": "7849943934049314",
  "fees": "4203312194",
  "active_stake": "784953934049314"
}

Query data of a specific stake pool

Let's look into another example and query data of a specific stake pool. You need to provide a Bech32 or hexadecimal pool_id.

curl

curl -H 'project_id: 1234567890' https://cardano-mainnet.blockfrost.io/api/v0/pools/c1cadab46b74defa9f79b59b617fe2a50bdbce6b367e472b6109a7bc

wget

wget --header='project_id: 1234567890' -qO- https://cardano-mainnet.blockfrost.io/api/v0/pools/c1cadab46b74defa9f79b59b617fe2a50bdbce6b367e472b6109a7bc

PHP

$headers = array('http'=> array(
                     'method' => 'GET',
                     'header' => 'project_id: 1234567890'
                    )
                );
$context = stream_context_create($headers);
$json = file_get_contents('https://cardano-mainnet.blockfrost.io/api/v0/pools/c1cadab46b74defa9f79b59b617fe2a50bdbce6b367e472b6109a7bc', false, $context);
$parsedJson = json_decode($json);

You will get a response in JSON format, similar to this:

{
  "vrf_key": "57c4d222e0f2f8083d7b63c8f7886f16fb7046621442bbd857f404b6f433c5e6",
  "blocks_minted": 1675,
  "live_stake": "33978569808898",
  "live_size": 0.0014709194212545152,
  "live_saturation": 0.5169025966078663,
  "live_delegators": 395,
  "active_stake": "37990508551252",
  "active_size": 0.0016498675360681707,
  "declared_pledge": "250010000000",
  "live_pledge": "765352096766",
  "margin_cost": 0.015,
  "fixed_cost": "340000000",
  "reward_account": "stake1u97pa0j0wtj5r3l6462z0xmlf5tg0dxpmss3y20almfnj5gc4tmrw",
  "owners": [
    "stake1uywma333mgeccv3aa2gvrkhz4qtz0cq9sszrnws8pv78gqqq6a65g",
    "stake1u9dqkqmdtdcav5qd933xwvwxgamrsdkr0zsn63ca0v4lz5cm7tvq0",
    "stake1u97pa0j0wtj5r3l6462z0xmlf5tg0dxpmss3y20almfnj5gc4tmrw"
  ],
  "registration": [
    "f6865b914988ed40998d2ff5453bd8af16976688065c9756d32c7a872064aaf8",
    "0e08711da89ebbaefaf897f5633c7b7bc6c1c9037451431745fbaefbf1227ec7",
    "9b85adfebc25f2cc7737039fb376043207e1ec7147b2800436138e7df58c70d4",
    "1243db764e42a3ec89d815d96bcf7242bfd2837d54f3047f2b5abacd7e52345d"
  ],
  "retirement": []
}

Query information of a specific asset

Let's look at this last example and query information of a specific native token on Cardano. You need to provide the string concatenation of the policy_id and hex-encoded asset_name.

curl

curl -H 'project_id: 1234567890' https://cardano-mainnet.blockfrost.io/api/v0/assets/d894897411707efa755a76deb66d26dfd50593f2e70863e1661e98a07370616365636f696e73

wget

wget --header='project_id: 1234567890' -qO- https://cardano-mainnet.blockfrost.io/api/v0/assets/d894897411707efa755a76deb66d26dfd50593f2e70863e1661e98a07370616365636f696e73

PHP

$headers = array('http'=> array(
                     'method' => 'GET',
                     'header' => 'project_id: 1234567890'
                    )
                );
$context = stream_context_create($headers);
$json = file_get_contents('https://cardano-mainnet.blockfrost.io/api/v0/assets/d894897411707efa755a76deb66d26dfd50593f2e70863e1661e98a07370616365636f696e73', false, $context);
$parsedJson = json_decode($json);

You will get this JSON response:

{
  "policy_id": "d894897411707efa755a76deb66d26dfd50593f2e70863e1661e98a0",
  "asset_name": "7370616365636f696e73",
  "fingerprint": "asset1pmmzqf2akudknt05ealtvcvsy7n6wnc9dd03mf",
  "quantity": "50000000",
  "initial_mint_tx_hash": "3cce12c77b9d11d70575320c4f2834b26debb065308fbe43954018fbeb90010d",
  "onchain_metadata": null,
  "metadata": null
}

Blockfrost documentation

Blockfrost has a powerful API with which you can do a lot of things. Visit docs.blockfrost.io to see the complete API documentation.