programSubscribe

The programSubscribe method creates a subscription that delivers real-time notifications whenever the lamports balance or data of any account owned by a specific program changes.

📘 Usage Notes

• This method must be called via a WebSocket endpoint. HTTP is not supported.
• If the WebSocket connection is dropped, the subscription is automatically cancelled. Re-subscribe after reconnecting.
• CU is consumed based on the volume of subscribed data. Use appropriate filtering options to subscribe only to the data you need.

---

1. Request

Parameters

The program subscription request accepts the following parameters.

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
id	integer or string	required	A unique identifier for the request, used by the client to match requests with responses.
jsonrpc	string	required	The JSON-RPC protocol version. Always set to "2.0".
method	string	required	The name of the method to invoke. Set to "programSubscribe".
params	array	required	Program information and options to subscribe to. The first element is the program ID; the second is a configuration object.
params[0]	string	required	The Pubkey of the program to subscribe to (base-58 encoded string).
params[1].commitment	string	optional	Specifies the level of block finalization. - finalized: Queries the most recent block confirmed as finalized by a supermajority of the cluster at maximum lockout. - confirmed: Queries the most recent block voted on by a supermajority of the cluster. - processed: Queries the node's most recent block, which may still be skipped by the cluster.
params[1].filters	array	optional	An array of filter objects used to narrow the results. Only accounts satisfying all filter conditions are included in the response.
params[1].encoding	string	optional	Encoding format for account data. - base58 (slow) - base64 - base64+zstd - jsonParsed (applies a program-specific parser if available; otherwise returns a binary string)

Example

{
  "jsonrpc": "2.0",
  "id": 1,
  "method": "programSubscribe",
  "params": [
    "11111111111111111111111111111111",
    {
      "encoding": "base64",
      "filters": [{ "dataSize": 80 }]
    }
  ]
}

---

2. Response

Subscription Response

On success, the server returns a subscription ID.

{
  "jsonrpc": "2.0",
  "result": 24040,
  "id": 1
}

This subscription ID is required when calling the programUnsubscribe method.

Notifications

Once the subscription is active, the server pushes a notification each time an account owned by the program changes. The notification format matches the response of the getProgramAccounts RPC HTTP method.

Response data format:

• Data is returned in one of the following formats depending on the encoding option: base58, base64, base64+zstd, or jsonParsed.
• jsonParsed converts the data into a human-readable format using a program-specific parser. If no parser is available, a binary string is returned instead.

Base58 Encoding Example

{
  "jsonrpc": "2.0",
  "method": "programNotification",
  "params": {
    "result": {
      "context": {
        "slot": 5208469
      },
      "value": {
        "pubkey": "H4vnBqifaSACnKa7acsxstsY1iV1bvJNxsCY7enrd1hq",
        "account": {
          "data": [
            "11116bv5nS2h3y12kD1yUKeMZvGcKLSjQgX6BeV7u1FrjeJcKfsHPXHRDEHrBesJhZyqnnq9qJeUuF7WHxiuLuL5twc38w2TXNLxnDbjmuR",
            "base58"
          ],
          "executable": false,
          "lamports": 33594,
          "owner": "11111111111111111111111111111111",
          "rentEpoch": 636,
          "space": 80
        }
      }
    },
    "subscription": 24040
  }
}

JSON Parsed Encoding Example

{
  "jsonrpc": "2.0",
  "method": "programNotification",
  "params": {
    "result": {
      "context": {
        "slot": 5208469
      },
      "value": {
        "pubkey": "H4vnBqifaSACnKa7acsxstsY1iV1bvJNxsCY7enrd1hq",
        "account": {
          "data": {
            "program": "nonce",
            "parsed": {
              "type": "initialized",
              "info": {
                "authority": "Bbqg1M4YVVfbhEzwA9SpC9FhsaG83YMTYoR4a8oTDLX",
                "blockhash": "LUaQTmM7WbMRiATdMMHaRGakPtCkc2GHtH57STKXs6k",
                "feeCalculator": {
                  "lamportsPerSignature": 5000
                }
              }
            }
          },
          "executable": false,
          "lamports": 33594,
          "owner": "11111111111111111111111111111111",
          "rentEpoch": 636,
          "space": 80
        }
      }
    },
    "subscription": 24040
  }
}

---

3. How to Use

Connect to WebSocket Channel

wscat -c wss://api.mainnet-beta.solana.com

Subscribe to Program

{
  "jsonrpc": "2.0",
  "id": 1,
  "method": "programSubscribe",
  "params": [
    "11111111111111111111111111111111",
    {
      "encoding": "base64",
      "filters": [{ "dataSize": 80 }]
    }
  ]
}

Receive Notifications

• Initial response: a subscription ID is returned.
• Subsequent: a "programNotification" event is received each time an account owned by the program changes.

Unsubscribe

There are two ways to cancel a subscription:

1. Close the connection: Press CTRL+C in the terminal to close the WebSocket connection. All active subscriptions are automatically cancelled.

2. Cancel a specific subscription: Use programUnsubscribe to cancel a specific subscription while keeping the connection open.

Unsubscribe request:

{
  "jsonrpc": "2.0",
  "id": 2,
  "method": "programUnsubscribe",
  "params": [24040]
}

Response after unsubscribing:

{
  "jsonrpc": "2.0",
  "result": true,
  "id": 2
}