# getLedgers

Returns a detailed list of ledgers starting from the user specified starting point that you can paginate as long as the pages fall within the set history retention.

This method will use `10` [Compute Units](/v1/about/billing.md).

***

## Reference: [Here](https://developers.stellar.org/docs/data/apis/rpc/api-reference/methods/getLedgers)

## **Parameters**

* `startLedger` (number) - Ledger sequence number to start fetching responses from (inclusive).
  * This method will return an error if `startLedger` is less than the oldest ledger stored in this node, or greater than the latest ledger seen by this node.
  * If a `cursor` is included in the request, `startLedger` must be omitted.
* `pagination` - Pagination in stellar-rpc is similar to pagination in Horizon. See [Pagination](https://developers.stellar.org/docs/data/rpc/api-reference/structure/pagination).
  * `cursor` (string)

    An opaque string which acts as a paging token. To obtain the next page of results occurring after a given response set this value to the `cursor` field of the response.
  * `limit` (number)

    The maximum number of records returned. The limit for getEvents can range from 1 to 10000 - an upper limit that is hardcoded in Stellar-RPC for performance reasons.
  * If this argument isn't designated, it defaults to 100.
* `xdrFormat` (string) - Lets the user choose the format in which the response should be returned - either as unpacked JSON or as base64-encoded XDR strings. Note that you should not rely on any schema for the JSON, as it will change when the underlying XDR changes.
  * Specifies whether XDR should be encoded as Base64 (default or 'base64') or JSON ('json').

## Returns

* `ledgers` array\[object]
  * `hash` string - The hash of the ledger header which was included in the chain
  * `sequence` number - The sequence number of the ledger (sometimes called the 'block height').
  * `ledgerCloseTime` string - The timestamp at which the ledger was closed.
  * `headerXdr` string - The LedgerHeader structure for this ledger (base64-encoded string).
  * `metadataXdr` string - The LedgerCloseMeta union for this ledger (base64-encoded string).
* `latestLedger` number - The sequence number of the latest ledger known to Stellar RPC at the time it handled the request.
* `latestLedgerCloseTime` number - The unix timestamp of the close time of the latest ledger known to Stellar RPC at the time it handled the request.
* `oldestLedger` number - The sequence number of the oldest ledger ingested by Stellar RPC at the time it handled the request.
* `oldestLedgerCloseTime` number - The unix timestamp of the close time of the oldest ledger ingested by Stellar RPC at the time it handled the request.
* `cursor` string - A token which can be included in a subsequent request to obtain the next page of results.

```bash
// Result
{
	"jsonrpc": "2.0",
	"result": {
		"ledgers": [
			{
				"hash": "4d88ad427af6c30b52753332ebac5f1903425e66db3ddcde345247b08b71edb9",
				"sequence": 57425798,
				"ledgerCloseTime": "1749245516",
				"headerXdr": "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",
				"metadataXdr": "AAAAAQAAAABNiK1CevbDC1J1..."
			}
		],
		"latestLedger": 57465290,
		"latestLedgerCloseTime": 1749467883,
		"oldestLedger": 57344331,
		"oldestLedgerCloseTime": 1748787427,
		"cursor": "57425799"
	},
	"id": 8675309
}
```

{% tabs %}
{% tab title="mainnet" %}

<pre class="language-bash"><code class="lang-bash"><strong>curl https://mainnet.stellar.validationcloud.io/v1/&#x3C;YOUR_API_KEY_HERE> \
</strong>    -X POST \
    -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
    -d '{
  "jsonrpc": "2.0",
  "id": 8675309,
  "method": "getLedgers",
  "params": {
    "startLedger": 57425798,
    "pagination": {
      "limit": 2
    }
  }
}
</code></pre>

{% endtab %}

{% tab title="testnet" %}

```bash
curl https://testnet.stellar.validationcloud.io/v1/<YOUR_API_KEY_HERE> \
    -X POST \
    -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
    -d '{
  "jsonrpc": "2.0",
  "id": 8675309,
  "method": "getLedgers",
  "params": {
    "startLedger": 57425798,
    "pagination": {
      "limit": 2
    }
  }
}
```

{% endtab %}
{% endtabs %}


---

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