requestAirdrop

Requests an airdrop of lamports to a Pubkey

Common use cases

Development account funding	Request test SOL from faucet to fund keypairs during development on devnet or testnet. Used for initializing accounts, deploying programs, and executing test transactions without mainnet costs.
Automated test setup	Programmatically fund test accounts in CI/CD pipelines and automated test suites. Eliminates manual faucet interaction for ephemeral wallets, enabling repeatable test environments on local validators or devnet.

Parameters

pubkey (string, required)

Pubkey of account to receive lamports, as a base-58 encoded string

lamports (u64, required)

Amount of lamports to airdrop

config (object, optional)

Configuration object containing the following fields:

Fields:

• commitment (string): The commitment describes how finalized a block is at that point in time. See Configuring State Commitment.

Request

cURL

curl https://solana-mainnet.api.syndica.io/api-key/YOUR_API_KEY \
  -X POST \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
  "jsonrpc": "2.0",
  "id": 1,
  "method": "requestAirdrop",
  "params": [
    "83astBRguLMdt2h5U1Tpdq5tjFoJ6noeGwaY3mDLVcri",
    1000000000,
    {
      "commitment": "finalized"
    }
  ]
}'

JavaScript

// Using fetch
const response = await fetch('https://solana-mainnet.api.syndica.io/api-key/YOUR_API_KEY', {
  method: 'POST',
  headers: { 'Content-Type': 'application/json' },
  body: JSON.stringify({
  "jsonrpc": "2.0",
  "id": 1,
  "method": "requestAirdrop",
  "params": [
    "83astBRguLMdt2h5U1Tpdq5tjFoJ6noeGwaY3mDLVcri",
    1000000000,
    {
      "commitment": "finalized"
    }
  ]
})
});
const data = await response.json();
console.log(data);

Python

import requests
import json

url = 'https://solana-mainnet.api.syndica.io/api-key/YOUR_API_KEY'
headers = {'Content-Type': 'application/json'}
data = {
  "jsonrpc": "2.0",
  "id": 1,
  "method": "requestAirdrop",
  "params": [
    "83astBRguLMdt2h5U1Tpdq5tjFoJ6noeGwaY3mDLVcri",
    1000000000,
    {
      "commitment": "finalized"
    }
  ]
}

response = requests.post(url, headers=headers, data=json.dumps(data))
print(response.json())

Network Selection

Replace mainnet with devnet in the URL to query devnet instead.

Response

{
  "jsonrpc": "2.0",
  "result": "5VERv8NMvzbJMEkV8xnrLkEaWRtSz9CosKDYjCJjBRnbJLgp8uirBgmQpjKhoR4tjF3ZpRzrFmBV6UjKdiSZkQUW",
  "id": 1
}

Response Fields

Return value: string

Transaction Signature of the airdrop, as a base-58 encoded string

FAQ and Troubleshooting

Why does requestAirdrop return a 429 error?

Devnet faucet has strict rate limits. Wait 60+ seconds between requests, switch to a local validator with solana-test-validator, or request smaller amounts.

Why does requestAirdrop fail with "Internal error" (-32603)?

Some devnet nodes are dead or misconfigured. This is a devnet infrastructure issue. Retry the request or switch RPC endpoints. For reliable testing, use a local validator instead of devnet.

Should I confirm the airdrop transaction before checking balance?

Yes. Call confirmTransaction with the returned signature at your desired commitment level before assuming the balance has updated. The airdrop is not guaranteed to succeed without confirmation.

Can I use requestAirdrop on mainnet?

No. requestAirdrop only works on devnet and testnet networks. Mainnet requires purchasing SOL from exchanges or transferring from existing wallets.

Related Methods

getBalance
Check account balance after requesting airdrop. Essential for confirming the airdrop succeeded and lamports were credited to the target account.

getLatestBlockhash
Obtain recent blockhash for optional use with requestAirdrop config. Some implementations pass explicit blockhash for transaction construction.

External Resources

• Solana Official Documentation
• Solana Faucet - Web-based alternative for manual devnet/testnet SOL requests with GitHub authentication