Jito and MEV commission: what it means for your rewards
MEV commission is the second fee a validator charges: its cut of MEV tips. MEV tips are extra income from how transactions are ordered in a block. A validator can charge 0% on inflation rewards and still keep a large share of tips, so check both numbers. The rest of the tips reach your stake account, but they aren't staked automatically.
What is MEV, in plain words?
MEV is extra income from choosing and ordering the transactions in a block. On Solana, traders and bots pay tips to get their transactions placed where they want them. Those tips are paid to validators. They come on top of the regular staking rewards, and they are not a promise: the amount depends on market activity and changes from epoch to epoch (about 2 days).
Where does Jito come in?
Jito is software that connects validators to an auction for those tips. A validator that runs the Jito client receives tips from it. One that doesn't run it has no MEV tips to share. The tips are passed on to validators and their stakers.
What is MEV commission?
It is the share of those tips the validator keeps. A validator sets it itself ("MEV commissions are up to the validators", in Jito's own docs). For example, a 5% MEV commission means the validator keeps 5% of the tips. The rest of the tips is shared among the validator's stakers in proportion to their stake.
How is it different from inflation commission?
| Inflation commission | MEV commission | |
|---|---|---|
| What it applies to | New SOL the network issues each epoch, the main part of staking income | MEV tips traders pay |
| Where it is set | On the validator's vote account | In a separate Jito account, chosen per epoch |
| Reaches you | Added to your active stake each epoch, and earns from the next one | Added to your stake account's balance, not staked |
| Linked to the other? | No | No |
The two settings are separate. So a validator showing 0% inflation commission can still have a high MEV commission. That's why our validator list shows both side by side. Background: what a validator's commission really means.
How do MEV tips reach you?
At the end of each epoch, Jito works out each stake account's share and publishes it. If the validator uses Jito's standard setup, the tips are sent to your stake account for you, and you don't claim anything. Usually within about a day after the epoch ends, sometimes longer. The tips land as extra SOL in the stake account, not as staked SOL. They earn nothing until you withdraw them and stake them again.
Why do MEV tips vary so much?
They depend on how many traders want priority in that epoch, so some epochs pay a lot and some almost nothing. A validator also only collects tips in the blocks it produces. Don't pick a validator on one good MEV epoch. Look at the commission, which is the part it controls, and at its history.
What should you check on a validator?
- Does it share MEV at all? On a validator's page, MEV commission shows next to inflation commission. It shows as — if the validator doesn't run Jito.
- Is the MEV commission low and steady? A rate that jumps between epochs deserves a closer look. The bot can tell you within minutes if your validator raises its MEV commission.
- Does the Score account for it? Yes: fees are part of the Score, and the Fees sub-score covers both commissions, and a validator without Jito gets no MEV points. See how the Score works.
Questions
It means more tips reach your stake. It is not a reason by itself: a validator that is often offline earns fewer tips for everyone.
Not when the validator uses Jito's standard setup, which sends them to your stake account. With another setup, the validator handles the claiming.
No. They sit in the stake account as withdrawable SOL until you stake them again. Inflation rewards do compound.
Jito keeps a small cut of tips, 3% today, before they are shared. It isn't a separate bill.