Archive Requests

Introduction

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What Are Archive Requests?

Archive requests are RPC calls that query historical blockchain state beyond what a standard full node retains. They allow you to access data from any point in the blockchain’s history.

Full Nodes vs Archive Nodes

Feature	Full Node	Archive Node
Recent State	Yes	Yes
Historical State	Limited (~128 blocks)	Complete
Storage Required	~1 TB	~15+ TB
Query Any Block	No	Yes

When You Need Archive Access

You need an archive node when:

Querying balances at historical block numbers
Reading contract storage from past blocks
Analyzing historical state for analytics
Debugging past transactions with state context

Archive-Dependent Methods

These methods require archive access when querying historical blocks:

Method	Archive Required When
`eth_getBalance`	Block parameter is not `latest`
`eth_getCode`	Block parameter is not `latest`
`eth_getStorageAt`	Block parameter is not `latest`
`eth_call`	Block parameter is not `latest`

Example

// This requires archive access (historical block)
{
  "method": "eth_getBalance",
  "params": ["0xd8dA6BF26964aF9D7eEd9e03E53415D37aA96045", "0xF4240"]
}

// This works on full nodes (latest block)
{
  "method": "eth_getBalance",
  "params": ["0xd8dA6BF26964aF9D7eEd9e03E53415D37aA96045", "latest"]
}

Archive Support on Moralis

Moralis RPC Nodes include archive access on all plans. You can query any historical block without additional configuration.

Best Practices

Use latest when you don’t need historical data
Cache historical queries when possible (they’re immutable)
Be aware archive queries may have slightly higher latency

JSON-RPC Overview RPC Batch Requests

⌘I

​What Are Archive Requests?

​Full Nodes vs Archive Nodes

​When You Need Archive Access

​Archive-Dependent Methods

​Example

​Archive Support on Moralis

​Best Practices