Overview

The XRP Ledger (XRPL) is a decentralized Layer 1 blockchain built for payments, with native support for issued currencies, a built-in decentralized exchange, automated market makers and NFTs.

Validation Cloud serves the complete public ledger history, from ledger 32,570 to the current ledger, with WebSocket and HTTPS access.

Developer docs: https://xrpl.org/docs

Mainnet block explorer: https://livenet.xrpl.org

Network Support

Network	Full History / Archive	HTTPS	WSS
XRPL Mainnet	✅	✅	✅

Request format. XRPL's HTTP API is JSON-RPC shaped but not JSON-RPC 2.0: the body is {"method": "...", "params": [{...}]} with no jsonrpc or id field. Over WebSocket, send {"id": 1, "command": "...", ...} with the parameters at the top level, as the xrpl.js and xrpl-py libraries do. The JSON-RPC shaped request {"jsonrpc": "2.0", "id": 1, "method": "...", "params": [{...}]} is accepted over WebSocket as well.

Validated by default. Responses come from Clio, which serves validated ledger data. Requests that need the open ledger (ledger_current, submit, fee, or any request with "ledger_index": "current") are forwarded to rippled automatically.

Errors are answers. XRPL reports failures inside a 200 OK response as "status": "error" with an error token (for example lgrNotFound, actNotFound), an error_code and an error_message. Check result.status rather than the HTTP status.

Not served. sign, sign_for and channel_authorize take a secret key and are refused with unknownCmd; sign transactions client-side and send them with submit. path_find and the peer_status, consensus and server streams are not available.

WebSocket clients MUST respond to server ping frames, otherwise the connection will be closed and re-established every minute.

Methods & Compute Units

Over WebSocket each method costs the same as over HTTPS. Every message pushed on a subscription (ledgerClosed, transaction, validationReceived, manifestReceived, bookChanges) is billed as one notification at 10 Compute Units regardless of size.

account_channels	40
account_currencies	20
account_info	20
account_lines	40
account_nfts	40
account_objects	40
account_offers	40
account_tx	40
amm_info	20
book_changes	40
book_offers	40
channel_verify	20
deposit_authorized	20
feature	20
fee	20
gateway_balances	40
get_aggregate_price	20
ledger	40
ledger_closed	20
ledger_current	20
ledger_data	40
ledger_entry	20
ledger_index	20
ledger_range	20
manifest	20
nft_buy_offers	40
nft_history	40
nft_info	20
nft_sell_offers	40
nfts_by_issuer	40
noripple_check	20
ping	20
random	20
ripple_path_find	40
server_definitions	40
server_info	20
server_state	20
simulate	40
submit	80
submit_multisigned	80
subscribe	20
transaction_entry	20
tx	20
unsubscribe	20
vault_info	20

Endpoint Capabilities

XRPL endpoints support both HTTP and WebSocket connectivity for production-grade applications.

HTTP

Best suited for:

• backend services and APIs

• ledger and account data queries, including full history via account_tx and ledger

• transaction submission with submit

• development and testing workflows

WebSocket

Best suited for:

• the ledger, transactions and validations streams

• monitoring accounts and order books with subscribe

• xrpl.js and other WebSocket-first client libraries

• applications that require low-latency data delivery

Getting Started

To start building on XRPL, connect your application to an XRPL endpoint and send XRPL API requests.

Example request over HTTPS:

mainnet

curl https://mainnet.xrpl.validationcloud.io/v1/<YOUR_API_KEY_HERE> \
    -X POST \
    -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
    -d '{"method":"account_info","params":[{"account":"rMxCKbEDwqr76QuheSUMdEGf4B9xJ8m5De","ledger_index":"validated"}]}'

Example request over WebSocket:

wscat -c wss://mainnet.xrpl.validationcloud.io/v1/<YOUR_API_KEY_HERE>
> {"id":1,"command":"account_info","account":"rMxCKbEDwqr76QuheSUMdEGf4B9xJ8m5De","ledger_index":"validated"}

With xrpl.js:

import { Client } from "xrpl";

const client = new Client("wss://mainnet.xrpl.validationcloud.io/v1/<YOUR_API_KEY_HERE>");
await client.connect();
const info = await client.request({ command: "server_info" });
console.log(info.result.info.complete_ledgers);
await client.disconnect();