How the Score rates every Solana validator
The Solana Staking Score is a 0–100 rating of every Solana validator, worked out by one public formula. Reliability counts for 65 points and fees for 35, and both are also shown as their own 0–100 sub-scores. Five rules can lower a score after that: a validator that keeps 100% of rewards, is blacklisted for harm or is not earning rewards scores 0, and one that is offline, blacklisted for other reasons or in the superminority (the largest validators that together hold a third of all stake) loses a set share. The same formula applies to every validator and is published in full below.
What does a validator's Score tell you?
| Band | Score | What it means | Validators now |
|---|---|---|---|
| Reliable | 70–100 | A strong record and fair fees. | |
| Average | 50–69 | Some weak spots. Check the flags before staking. | |
| Poor | 1–49 | Several problems: fees, uptime, size or history. | |
| Disqualified | 0 | Keeps 100% of inflation rewards, is blacklisted for harm or is not earning rewards. |
Reliability counts for 65 points, fees for 35
The Score adds up 12 parts. Each part scores from zero to its full points, and the parts add up to 100.
Reliability — 65 points
| Part | Points | What it checks | Why it matters to you |
|---|---|---|---|
| Performance | 12 | Vote credits (points a validator earns for correct, on-time votes) over the last 10 epochs — an epoch is about a day — compared with the median validator. Full points at 100% of the median or more, none at 90% or less | A validator that votes late or misses votes earns less for its stakers. |
| Uptime | 10 | Share of the last 30 days the validator was online. Full points at 99.9% or more, none at 99.0% or less | Offline time is time your stake earns nothing. |
| Skipped blocks | 5 | Share of its assigned block slots it skipped over the last 10 epochs, compared with the network average. Full points at the average or better, none at 10 percentage points worse. A validator with no assigned slots gets half the points | A skipped block is a block that never got made, and it costs rewards. |
| Track record | 4 | How long we've seen it on mainnet; points grow evenly up to the full 4 at 182 epochs (about 6 months at the current epoch length) and stay there after that | A long record is harder to fake than a good week. |
| Software version | 4 | Its client version compared with what most of the network runs | Outdated software is more likely to fall behind or fail. |
| Foundation dependency | 6 | How much of its stake comes from the Solana Foundation's delegation program | Foundation stake can be moved away. A validator that relies on it can shrink suddenly. |
| Stake sources | 6 | How many separate sources its stake comes from; full points at 4 or more, halved if one source holds 95% or more | Stake spread across many sources is more stable. |
| Individual stakers | 4 | Share of stake from individual delegators rather than pools; full points at 50% | Real delegators choosing a validator is a signal pools can't buy. |
| Size | 8 | Total stake: most points around 200,000 SOL, none below 30,000 or above 1,000,000 SOL | Very small validators produce few blocks; very large ones concentrate the network. |
| Hosting provider | 6 | Share of all network stake at the same hosting provider; zero at 33% or more (unknown providers are not penalized). Also zero if its hosting network (provider and network number) holds more than 15% of all network stake | If one provider or hosting network goes down, every validator in it goes down together. |
Fees — 35 points
| Part | Points | What it checks | Why it matters to you |
|---|---|---|---|
| Inflation commission | 17.5 | Full points at 0%, falling to zero at 5%. We use the highest commission the validator set in the last 90 days, so a quick drop back to 0% does not hide a past raise | This is the cut the validator takes from your staking rewards. |
| MEV commission | 17.5 | Full points at 0%, falling to zero at 10%. A validator that doesn't run Jito gets zero here, so its maximum Score is 82.5 | MEV tips are extra rewards; the commission is how much of them it keeps. |
The 5% and 10% limits follow the Solana Foundation's delegation criteria (solana.org/delegation-criteria).
When a validator changes its inflation commission, the new rate applies to rewards only from the epoch after next. This network rule has been in force since June 2026 (SIMD-0249).
Our Score uses the highest inflation commission the validator set in the last 90 days, from the first Score update after the epoch in which it changed. The Fees raised flag uses the current rate and looks back 30 days. Realized rewards show the change about two epochs later.
So a raise can lower the Score before it touches anyone's rewards, which gives you time to move. MEV commission is set separately and isn't delayed this way.
What are the Reliability and Fees numbers next to the Score?
Next to the Score, the list and each validator page show two smaller numbers from 0 to 100: Reliability (the 65 reliability points, as a share of 65) and Fees (the 35 fee points, as a share of 35).
They are worked out before the rules below apply, so a validator that is offline right now still shows its normal Reliability and Fees. The Score is the one number the rules change.
Use them to see why a Score is what it is: a high Score with a low Fees number means good reliability and expensive commission, and the other way round.
Five rules can cut any score, even a high one
After the parts are added up, these rules apply. A rule that sets the score to 0 wins; the others multiply (for example, offline and in the superminority: × 0.4 × 0.9 = × 0.36):
- Keeps 100% of inflation rewards → Score 0. Its stakers lose the main part of their rewards, so nothing else counts.
- Not earning rewards → Score 0. Since Solana's Alpenglow upgrade, a validator can vote only if it has registered a BLS key (a registration it needs to vote). One without a key does not vote and earns no rewards for its stakers. Your SOL stays in your stake account. What Alpenglow changed
- Blacklisted for harm → Score 0. Marinade lists it as malicious or for a commission rug pull, or it is on Jito's on-chain blacklist. Blacklisted for other reasons (for example, falling behind on votes) → Score × 0.85.
- Not voting right now (offline) → Score × 0.4. The network marks a validator "delinquent" when its votes fall too far behind; we call that offline. The score recovers as soon as it's voting again.
- In the superminority → Score × 0.9. The superminority is the smallest group of the largest validators that together hold a third of all stake. Staking there adds to the concentration of the network, not to the risk for your SOL. What is the superminority?
What do "provisional" and "—" mean?
- Provisional:
- A validator with less than 5 epochs of history gets a score, but we mark it "provisional" and don't rank it. Early numbers swing a lot.
- No rating:
- Shown as "—". It means we don't have a score yet (for example, during the current epoch or for a validator we stopped tracking). It never means zero.
What does each flag warn you about?
Flags sit next to the name in the list and on the validator page. Red flags are problems that cost you rewards now; yellow ones are worth a look.
| Flag | Color | When it shows |
|---|---|---|
| Offline now | red | The validator is not voting at the moment. |
| Not earning rewards | red | It has no registered BLS key (the registration it needs to vote after the Alpenglow upgrade), so it does not vote and earns no rewards. |
| Blacklisted | red | Marinade lists it as malicious or for a commission rug pull, or it is on Jito's on-chain blacklist. |
| Keeps 100% | red | Its inflation commission is 100%. |
| Fees raised | red | It raised its commission in the last 30 days, or spiked it and dropped it again within the last 90 (a "commission rug pull"). |
| Very large | yellow | More than 4,000,000 SOL staked. This is our own threshold for "one of the largest validators", not a protocol rule. |
| Superminority | yellow | It is among the largest validators that together hold a third of all stake. |
| Often offline | yellow | Offline on 5 or more of the last 90 days. |
| New | gray | Less than 5 epochs of history. |
What do the other numbers on the site mean?
- Realized rewards (last 30 days):
- What stakers actually earned with a validator over the epochs of the last 30 days, per year, after the validator's fees. It's the past, not a forecast: rates change every epoch.
- Uptime strip (90 days):
- One bar per day. Green: offline 15 minutes or less. Amber: 15 minutes to about 2.4 hours. Red: longer. Hatched: no data for that day.(Note: the Score uses the last 30 days; the strip shows 90 so you can see the longer pattern.)
- Uptime % (90 days):
- The share of time the validator was online over the last 90 days; days without data are left out. 99% or more is good (green), 90% to 99% calls for caution (yellow), below 90% is poor (red).
- Typical commission:
- The median inflation commission of validators that are voting and don't charge 100%. Half of validators charge this or less.
- "Good for beginners" and Top picks:
- Validators rated Reliable, with no red flags, an inflation commission of 7% or less, at least 30 epochs of history and not flagged "Very large". Top picks are the six highest scores among them.
Every number comes from public data you can check
| Data | Source | Updated |
|---|---|---|
| Stake, votes, commission, versions | Solana network (RPC) | Every few minutes; scores settle once per epoch |
| MEV rewards and MEV commission | Jito | Hourly |
| Rewards history gaps | Trillium (public validator-rewards data) | Once per epoch |
| Blacklists | Jito and Marinade | Daily |
| Solana Foundation delegation | Solana Foundation Delegation Program data | Once per epoch |
| Hosting provider and location | Public IP data | Once per epoch |
Scores are recalculated after every epoch, about once a day. The date and epoch of the data are shown on every page.
A Score describes the past. It's not a guarantee or advice.
- Not a guarantee.
- A high score describes a validator's record so far. Validators can change their fees or go offline at any time.
- Not investment advice.
- It's a way to compare validators, not a recommendation to buy or stake any amount.
- Not for sale.
- A score, a flag or a place in Top picks can't be bought.
- Not about your coins.
- When you stake natively, your SOL stays in your own stake account. A validator's score affects your rewards, not the safety of your SOL.
Common questions about the Score
Usually one or two parts pull it down: fees above 5% / 10%, a large share of stake from the Solana Foundation or one pool, or a very large or very small stake. Open its page: the verdict names the main reasons.
Every part is listed above with its full-points level. The biggest levers are steady uptime and votes, a low commission that you keep stable, independence from Foundation stake, and several stake sources. Scores update after every epoch.
Big validators aren't more likely to keep your SOL safe — your SOL is never theirs. But when too much stake sits with a few validators, the network is easier to disrupt. Mid-sized validators score best on size.
Rarely, and never quietly. Every change gets a new version number and a line in the change log below, with the date.
No. Every validator is scored by the same rules from public data.
Change log
- v2.1 (Oct 30, 2026) — Three fixes that make the Score fairer, from epoch 1070. Vote performance is now compared with what most of the network's stake achieves, so the move to Alpenglow no longer lowers the score of validators that vote well. When a validator's MEV commission is missing for one epoch, the last known rate is used instead of treating it as having no MEV. The penalty for being offline now depends on how much of the epoch a validator was offline: up to 2% of an epoch (about half an hour) costs nothing, then the penalty grows step by step and is full at half an epoch or more. 64 validators moved by 1 point or more. Scores for epochs 1070 and 1071 were recalculated on Oct 30, 2026; earlier epochs keep the values of version 2.0.
- v2.0 (Oct 20, 2026) — Score v2. Reliability is scored on a wider scale: performance is compared with the median validator over 10 epochs, uptime is scored on a stricter scale (full points at 99.9%), and skipped blocks are a new part. Part weights are rebalanced, track record now builds up over 182 epochs (about 6 months at the current epoch length) instead of two months, and a validator whose hosting network holds more than 15% of network stake gets no hosting points. The inflation commission part uses the highest rate of the last 90 days. New rules: a validator not earning rewards under Alpenglow, or blacklisted for harm, scores 0; one in the superminority scores × 0.9. Reliability and Fees are shown as their own numbers next to the Score.
- v1.0 (Sep 25, 2026) — First public version.