Transactions Per Second

Observed throughput divides a day of confirmed transactions by the seconds in the day. It answers what the network did, not what it could do under laboratory conditions. It is the honest counterpart to headline capacity claims, which are measured under controlled test conditions rather than live demand.

How it is computed

transactions confirmed over the trailing 24 hours / 86400

Where it misleads

This is observed throughput and not capacity, so a low figure usually reflects low demand rather than a limit being reached, and a high figure does not establish that the ceiling is higher still. The unit is not comparable between chains for the same reasons transaction counts are not: a batched payment to many recipients, a compute-heavy contract call and a consensus vote message can each count as one transaction. Layer 2 throughput measured on the layer 2 itself and the settlement transactions it posts to its parent chain are separate series that are routinely mixed in comparisons. Peak or theoretical figures published by projects come from test environments and are a different measurement entirely.

Reading a high or a low value

A higher value means more transactions were processed per second on average over the period. It reflects demand as much as capability and is not comparable across chains with different transaction models.