Key Highlights
- Solana will raise its block compute limit from 60 million to 100 million CUs on July 29.
- The upgrade increases block capacity by roughly 66% while maintaining 400ms block times.
- Only the overall block limit changes; existing per-account limits remain unchanged.
Solana blockchain is preparing a major network upgrade that would increase the maximum compute capacity of each block by roughly two-thirds as the blockchain continues handling growing trading activity, payments, and on-chain applications.
According to the official announcement, the upgrade, scheduled to activate on July 29, will raise Solana’s maximum block size from 60 million compute units (CUs) to 100 million CUs under SIMD-0286, a proposal authored by Jito Labs.
Compute units measure how much processing work transactions consume on Solana. Increasing the block limit allows validators to include more transactions in each block without changing how existing applications operate.
The proposal does not alter transaction formats or require developers to update their applications. Instead, it increases the total amount of computation available within each block while leaving other network limits unchanged.
Why is Solana increasing block capacity
The latest increase builds on Solana’s broader effort to expand network throughput.
Last year, the network raised its block limit from 50 million to 60 million compute units, and the Solana Foundation said growing usage has shown that additional capacity is needed.
According to Solana, approximately 11% of all blocks produced over the past year have consumed more than 56 million compute units. Congestion has typically occurred during periods of elevated market volatility when users compete for blockspace.
Rather than reducing transaction fees or altering transaction priorities, the new limit provides additional room for activity during these demand spikes.
How Solana plans to avoid more congestion
While the total compute budget per block would increase significantly, other protocol limits will remain unchanged. The maximum compute allocation for any single writable account will stay fixed at 12 million compute units, preventing one heavily used application from consuming an outsized share of each block.
As a result, the additional capacity primarily benefits unrelated applications operating simultaneously across the network.
The Solana Foundation said the network is expected to maintain its current 400-millisecond block times, arguing that recent improvements in validator performance provide sufficient headroom to support larger blocks without affecting normal operation.
Infrastructure improvements support upgrade
The Foundation said the higher block limit follows months of work focused on validator networking and execution performance. One of the key improvements has been the rollout of XDP (Express Data Path), a kernel-bypass networking technology that accelerates how validators receive and propagate blocks.
According to Solana, more than 70% of mainnet stake now operates with XDP enabled, allowing the network to handle larger blocks. The feature has already been activated on both testnet and devnet, where developers and infrastructure providers have been validating performance before the mainnet rollout.
Latest step in Solana’s infrastructure expansion
The block capacity increase follows a series of infrastructure upgrades aimed at expanding Solana’s role beyond retail crypto trading.
In recent months, the network has seen increased activity across tokenized assets, payments, and financial infrastructure. Last month, MoneyGram became an active validator on Solana while joining the Solana Developer Platform, describing stablecoins as a key component of future payment systems.
The Solana Foundation has also continued focusing on use cases involving tokenized financial products, AI applications, and enterprise payment infrastructure.
Against this backdrop, the 100 million compute unit upgrade represents another step in preparing the network for higher transaction volumes as adoption continues to expand.
What the upgrade means for developers and users
The Foundation described the upgrade as part of a longer-term scaling strategy rather than a one-time increase.
By doubling network capacity from the previous 50 million CU baseline while maintaining existing validator safeguards, Solana aims to support larger workloads without forcing applications to compete for limited blockspace during periods of high demand.
For developers, the transition is expected to require no changes.
For users, the additional capacity could help reduce congestion during busy market periods and provide more room for applications built on the network.
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