How the Score works
Every Solana validator gets a Score from 0 to 100. Reliability counts for 65 points and fees for 35. Four rules can lower a score after that: a validator that keeps 100% of rewards scores 0, and one that is offline or blacklisted loses a set share. The same formula applies to every validator and is published in full below.
The Score at a glance
| 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 — the main part of staking income. |
The bands were set from the real spread of scores when the formula was published: about four in ten validators were Reliable and about one in five were Poor or Disqualified.
What we measure
The Score adds up 11 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 | 9 | Vote credits (points a validator earns for correct, on-time votes) over the last 10 epochs — an epoch is about 1–2 days — compared with the best validator in each epoch | A validator that votes late or misses votes earns less for its stakers. |
| Uptime | 8 | Minutes offline per day over the last 30 days | Offline time is time your stake earns nothing. |
| Track record | 4 | How long we've seen it on mainnet; full points at 30 epochs | 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| Software version | 4 | Its client version compared with what most of the network runs | Outdated software is more likely to fall behind or fail.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 | 12 | 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 | 8 | How many independent 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 | 5 | 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 | 10 | 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 | 5 | Share of all network stake at the same hosting provider; zero at 33% or more (unknown providers are not penalized) | If one provider goes down, every validator on 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% | 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 about 82 | 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).
Rules that lower a score
After the parts are added up, four rules apply:
- Keeps 100% of inflation rewards → Score 0. Its stakers lose the main part of their rewards, so nothing else counts.
- 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.
- Blacklisted by Jito or Marinade → Score × 0.85. Blacklists point to behavior that harms other users or the network.
- Doesn't run Jito → MEV part is zero (see above).
New and unrated validators
- 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.
Flags
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. |
| Blacklisted | red | It's on the Jito or Marinade 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. |
| Often offline | yellow | Offline on 5 or more of the last 90 days. |
| New | gray | Less than 5 epochs of history. |
Other numbers on the site
- 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.
Where the data comes from
| 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 every 1–2 days. The date and epoch of the data are shown on every page.
What the Score is not
- 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.
Questions
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 fees, independence from Foundation stake, several stake sources and steady uptime. 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
- v1.0 (Sep 25, 2026) — First public version.