How to Check Solana Wallet Balance using PHP

Understanding How Solana Stores Wallet Balances

Every Solana wallet stores its native SOL balance in the blockchain's smallest unit called a lamport.

• 1 Bitcoin = 100,000,000 satoshis
• 1 Ether = 1,000,000,000,000,000 wei
• Solana uses: 1 SOL = 1,000,000,000 lamports

The blockchain always stores balances as integers to eliminate floating-point precision errors. When you query a wallet balance, the RPC node returns the balance in lamports. Your application simply divides the returned value by 1,000,000,000 (10⁹) to calculate the displayed SOL balance.

Prerequisites

• PHP 7.4 or newer
• cURL enabled (or file_get_contents() with URL wrappers)
• Access to a Solana RPC endpoint
• A valid Solana wallet address

Public RPC endpoint: https://api.mainnet-beta.solana.com

Step 1: Create the JSON-RPC Request

Solana uses JSON-RPC to communicate with nodes. To retrieve a wallet balance, use the getBalance method.

{
    "jsonrpc": "2.0",
    "id": 1,
    "method": "getBalance",
    "params": [
        "6aZ9D8M6z6GJm5kNLpWfH8J6fd7Jx6vJH3Qv3QdT2gJ5"
        ]
    }

Step 2: Send the Request Using PHP

The following example sends the request using cURL.

<?php
$rpc = "https://api.mainnet-beta.solana.com";

$request = [
    "jsonrpc" => "2.0",
    "id" => 1,
    "method" => "getBalance",
    "params" => [
        "6aZ9D8M6z6GJm5kNLpWfH8J6fd7Jx6vJH3Qv3QdT2gJ5"
    ]
];

$ch = curl_init($rpc);
curl_setopt_array($ch, [
    CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER => true,
    CURLOPT_POST => true,
    CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER => [ "Content-Type: application/json" ],
    CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS => json_encode($request)
]);

$response = curl_exec($ch);
curl_close($ch);
$response = json_decode($response, true);

Step 3: Read the Response

A successful response looks like this:

{
    "jsonrpc": "2.0",
    "result": {
        "context": { "slot": 123456789 },
        "value": 2154864200
    },
    "id": 1
}

The important field is value: 2154864200

Unlike Ethereum-compatible blockchains, this value is already returned as a decimal integer. No hexadecimal conversion is necessary.

Step 4: Convert Lamports to SOL

The returned integer represents the balance in lamports. Convert it to SOL by dividing by 1,000,000,000.

$lamports = $response['result']['value'];
$balance = bcdiv((string)$lamports, '1000000000', 9);
echo $balance;   // 2.154864200

Output: 2.154864200 SOL

The wallet therefore contains 2.154864200 SOL.

Complete PHP Example

Putting everything together:

<?php
$rpc = "https://api.mainnet-beta.solana.com";
$request = [
    "jsonrpc" => "2.0",
    "id" => 1,
    "method" => "getBalance",
    "params" => [
        "6aZ9D8M6z6GJm5kNLpWfH8J6fd7Jx6vJH3Qv3QdT2gJ5"
    ]
];

$ch = curl_init($rpc);
curl_setopt_array($ch, [
    CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER => true,
    CURLOPT_POST => true,
    CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER => [ "Content-Type: application/json" ],
    CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS => json_encode($request)
]);

$response = curl_exec($ch);
curl_close($ch);
$response = json_decode($response, true);

$lamports = $response['result']['value'];
$balance = bcdiv((string)$lamports, '1000000000', 9);
echo "SOL Balance: " . $balance;
// SOL Balance: 2.154864200

Using file_get_contents() Instead of cURL

If your server allows HTTP stream wrappers, you can perform the same request without using cURL.

$rpc = "https://api.mainnet-beta.solana.com";
$request = [
    "jsonrpc" => "2.0",
    "id" => 1,
    "method" => "getBalance",
    "params" => [ $walletAddress ]
];
$options = [
    "http" => [
        "method" => "POST",
        "header" => "Content-Type: application/json\r\n",
        "content" => json_encode($request)
    ]
];
$response = file_get_contents($rpc, false, stream_context_create($options));
$response = json_decode($response, true);

This approach works well for lightweight scripts, while cURL generally offers greater flexibility for production applications.

Common Mistakes

Forgetting the Lamport Conversion

The returned value is not the SOL balance displayed in wallets.

• Returned Value: 2154864200
• Displayed Balance: 2.154864200 SOL

Always divide by 10⁹.

Using Ethereum RPC Methods

Developers familiar with Ethereum sometimes attempt to call methods such as eth_getBalance. These methods do not exist on Solana. Instead, use getBalance.

Confusing SOL With SPL Tokens

The getBalance method retrieves only the native SOL balance. If you need balances for SPL tokens such as USDC, USDT, BONK, or other Solana tokens, you'll need to query the wallet's associated token accounts using methods like getTokenAccountsByOwner or getTokenAccountBalance.

Using an Unreliable Public RPC

The public Solana RPC endpoint is suitable for testing and development, but production applications often require higher reliability and rate limits. Using a dedicated RPC provider helps ensure faster response times and greater availability.

SOL vs SPL Tokens

It's important to distinguish between native SOL and SPL tokens.

Understanding this distinction helps developers choose the correct RPC method depending on the asset they're querying.

Conclusion

Retrieving a Solana wallet balance in PHP is a simple process thanks to the blockchain's JSON-RPC API. By sending a getBalance request to a Solana node, your application receives the wallet's balance in lamports. Dividing that integer by 1,000,000,000 converts it into the human-readable SOL balance displayed by wallets and exchanges.

Unlike Ethereum-compatible blockchains, Solana returns balances as decimal integers instead of hexadecimal values, eliminating the need for hexadecimal conversion. Combined with PHP's built-in networking capabilities and BCMath for precise arithmetic, this makes it straightforward to build reliable wallet applications, payment systems, blockchain explorers, and cryptocurrency services that interact with the Solana network.