How Solana staking pays you
Staking rewards come from newly issued SOL (inflation) and, at validators that run Jito, MEV tips paid by traders. Both are paid once per epoch, about every 1–2 days, in proportion to your stake, after your validator's commission. Rates change every epoch, so any APY is an estimate, not a promise.
What does staking actually do?
Solana is run by validators, computers that check transactions and vote on which blocks are valid. Every validator needs stake behind it. The more SOL is pointed at a validator, the more its votes count and the more often it gets a turn to produce a block.
Staking means pointing your SOL at one validator. The coins stay in a stake account that only your wallet controls. The validator uses their weight but never holds the coins themselves. In return, the network pays rewards to the validator and its stakers, and the validator keeps a cut called its commission.
Where do staking rewards come from?
Rewards are settled once per epoch, Solana's reward period of about 1–2 days (the timing is covered below). The money comes from four places, but only two of them reach you by default.
| Stream | Where it comes from | Does it reach you? |
|---|---|---|
| Inflation rewards | New SOL issued by the network every epoch | Yes, after the validator's inflation commission |
| MEV tips | Traders paying, through Jito, to get their transactions in a certain order | Yes, if the validator runs Jito, after its MEV commission |
| Base fees | A small fixed fee on every transaction | No. Part is burned and part goes to the validator |
| Priority fees | Optional extra fees for faster processing | Only if the validator shares them |
Inflation rewards
The network creates new SOL every epoch and pays it to stakers. The yearly rate follows a schedule set by the protocol and falls a little every year toward a long-term floorNeeds verification. Your share depends on how much you stake and on your validator's vote credits, which are the points it earns for voting on time. The validator takes its inflation commission first.
MEV tips
MEV (maximal extractable value) is the extra profit traders can make when their transactions go into a block in a particular order, for example in arbitrage. Traders bid for that order in Jito's auction and pay tips to the validator that produces the block. Jito keeps a small cut, and the validator keeps its MEV commission. The rest is shared with the validator's stakers every epoch. Validators that don't run Jito's software earn no MEV tips, so their stakers don't get any either.
Base fees
Every transaction pays a small fixed fee of 5,000 lamports (0.000005 SOL) per signature. Part of it is burned, and part goes to the validator that produced the block. None of it is passed to stakers automatically.
Priority fees
A priority fee is an optional extra that a user pays to get a transaction processed sooner. It goes to the validator that produced the block. The validator keeps all of it unless it chooses to share with its stakers.
This is why a validator's headline commission doesn't tell you everything. A "5% commission" covers inflation rewards only. What a validator's commission really means goes through every fee.
When are staking rewards paid?
They're paid once per epoch. An epoch is 432,000 slots (a slot is one turn to produce a block), which currently works out to about 1–2 days. Epochs are getting shorter as Solana speeds up block production, so rewards arrive a little more often.
At each epoch change, the inflation rewards for the epoch that just ended are added to your stake account. MEV tips are paid per epoch as well and can arrive separately. Neither goes to your main balance. Both stay in the stake account and start earning rewards themselves from the next epoch. That's compounding, and it's the difference between APR (a simple yearly rate) and APY (the yearly rate with compounding).
New stake takes a little longer. It turns active at the next epoch change and earns its first reward at the end of its first full epoch, which is roughly two epoch changes after you stake. When a lot of new stake is joining at once, activation can take an extra epoch.
Why does my APY keep changing?
In 2024 a Solana holder titled a forum post "From 7% to 11.5% CHANGED TO 9%!?" The frustration is fair. The rate moves because almost everything that goes into it moves.
| What changed | What it does to your rate |
|---|---|
| The network's inflation rate | Falls a little every year, slowly and predictably |
| How much SOL is staked across the network | The same new SOL split over more stake means less for each staked SOL |
| Market activity | Busy markets bring more MEV tips, and quiet ones bring fewer |
| Your validator's voting | Missed votes or downtime mean fewer vote credits and smaller rewards |
| Your validator's skip rate (the share of its turns to produce a block that it misses) | Missed blocks mean missed MEV tips |
| Your validator's commission | A raise cuts your share, starting with the next reward |
How the rate is measured matters too. A figure from a single epoch swings with the MEV tips of that epoch. A 30-day figure smooths the swings out.
What's the difference between realized and advertised APY?
Advertised APY is an estimate of what you might earn, shown before you stake. Realized APY is what stake at a validator actually earned over a past period, after commission, converted to a yearly rate.
| Advertised APY | Realized APY | |
|---|---|---|
| Looks at | The future | The past, for example the last 30 days |
| Reflects this validator's downtime | Not necessarily | Yes |
| After commission | Depends on who shows it | Yes |
| Includes MEV tips | Depends on who shows it | Yes, if the validator runs Jito |
| A promise | No | No |
When you see an advertised number, ask three questions. Is it before or after commission? Does it include MEV tips? Does it come from one epoch or from a longer period?
Realized rewards over several epochs are the fairer way to compare validators. They're still history, not a forecast, but they show how a validator has actually treated its stakers.
If anyone promises you a fixed rate, walk away. One review of a staking service praised a different platform because it "pays much better (up to 5% daily!)". Real staking pays nothing close to that, and its rewards can't be fixed in advance.
Why can't I see my staking rewards?
"I cannot view my solana staking earnings" is a real line from a wallet app review, and it's a common worry. Before you assume the worst, check these:
- Has your stake had time to start? The first reward comes about two epoch changes after you stake.
- Are you looking at the right balance? Rewards go into the stake account, not your main balance. Some wallet screens show only the latest reward, not the full history.
- Is your validator online? An offline validator earns nothing for its stakers until it's back. The verdict line on its page tells you if it's offline.
- Does it charge 100% commission? A validator with 100% commission keeps all the inflation rewards, so its stakers get none of them — only MEV tips, if it runs Jito and shares them. We mark these validators "Disqualified".
If all four check out, look up your stake account in a Solana block explorer, which lists every reward it has received. You can also have our Telegram bot report your rewards every epoch. It needs only your public key.
Questions
Once per epoch, which currently means about every 1–2 days. Inflation rewards for the epoch that just ended are added to your stake account automatically when the next one begins. At validators that run Jito, MEV tips are paid per epoch too and can arrive separately. None of it lands in your main balance.
Yes. Rewards are added to your stake account, so from the next epoch they earn rewards as well. You don't have to restake anything by hand. That's also why APY, which counts compounding, comes out a little higher than APR, which doesn't, for the same validator over the same period.
There's no fixed good number, because the network rate moves every epoch. A better test is to compare a validator's realized rewards over the last 30 days with the network average for the same period. Close to or above average, with a clean uptime record, is what you want. A promised fixed rate is a red flag.
The advertised figure may have been before commission, or included MEV tips your validator doesn't earn because it doesn't run Jito. It may have come from one unusually good epoch, or your validator may have been offline for part of the time. Realized rewards over 30 days, after commission, are the fairer comparison.
No. Rewards depend on the network's inflation rate, market activity and your validator's performance and fees, and all of those change. Your SOL stays in your stake account, and Solana has no slashing today, but the amount you earn is never fixed. Treat any APY as an estimate.