Checking Network Stats: Fees & Supply

Once you run a node, it becomes a window into the live Monero network. You don't have to trust a third party to tell you the current fee or how much XMR exists — you can read it straight from the source. This lesson shows how to check the current transaction fee, the block reward and difficulty, and the total circulating supply, using your own node, a wallet, or a block explorer.

How Monero Fees Work

Monero fees are dynamic and charged per byte of transaction data, not as a percentage of the amount. The network publishes a baseline fee-per-byte that adjusts with block space, and wallets pick a priority tier (low → highest) on top of it. The practical result is fees of a few cents in normal conditions, regardless of whether you send 0.01 or 1,000 XMR.

To read the current fee estimate directly from your node's RPC:

curl http://127.0.0.1:18081/json_rpc \
  -d '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":"0","method":"get_fee_estimate"}' \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json'

The response gives the fee per byte (in atomic units; 1 XMR = 1e12 atomic units). Your wallet does this math for you and shows the fee before you confirm — but now you know where the number comes from.

Block Reward & Difficulty

Every block pays a reward to the miner who finds it, and difficulty adjusts each block to keep block times near two minutes. Read both from get_info and get_last_block_header:

curl http://127.0.0.1:18081/json_rpc \
  -d '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":"0","method":"get_last_block_header"}' \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json'

The block header includes the reward and difficulty. As covered in Community, Emission & Tail Emission, the reward settled at a permanent tail emission of 0.6 XMR per block, which keeps miners paid forever and keeps supply mildly, predictably growing.

Total Circulating Supply

There is no fixed "max supply" number to look up like some coins — Monero's supply grows by 0.6 XMR every block via tail emission. To see the current circulating supply, query your node:

curl http://127.0.0.1:18081/json_rpc \
  -d '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":"0","method":"get_coinbase_tx_sum","params":{"height":0,"count":3000000}}' \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json'

This sums all coinbase (newly minted) outputs up to the current height — that total is the amount of XMR ever emitted, i.e. the circulating supply. Easier still, get_info shows the current height, and any block explorer displays the live circulating supply on its front page. Monero's supply is fully auditable from the chain itself — you never have to take anyone's word for it.

The Easy Way: Block Explorers & Wallets

You don't need the command line for everyday checks:

• Your wallet shows the fee for any transaction before you send, and tells you the current block height as it syncs.
• Block explorers show live fees, block reward, difficulty, hashrate and circulating supply at a glance. Community explorers — listed in Monerica's Blockchain Explorers directory — include xmrchain.net — the explorer the Kraken exchange points its users to — plus exploremonero.com and xmrscan.org. Where privacy matters most, host your own with xmrblocks against your own node — see Running a Public Remote Node.
• Network sites like the wider Monerica network track price and market data if you want the fiat picture too.

Knowing how to read fees, reward and supply turns Monero from a black box into something you can verify yourself — exactly the point of a trust-minimized network. Next, learn to keep your node lean in Node Pruning Explained.