OP_RETURN Stats·BitcoinStats.io

∞/21M
Overview

OP_RETURN Snapshot

OP_RETURN Outputs Created
238,529,254
at height 958,458
Payload (all)
5.03 GB
Height
958,458
Last Data Update
2026-07-17 22:28:03 UTC
First observed OP_RETURN
2013-03-29 14:18:58 UTC @ 228,596 (tx 1a2e...93fc)*  ·  Size:20bytes
Last observed OP_RETURN
2026-07-17 22:27:46 UTC @ 958,458 (tx 3bbd...e297)*  ·  Size:105bytes
First observed payload >= 224 B
2013-11-05 11:23:00 UTC @ 268,060 (tx d29c...bc9b)*  ·  Size:983bytes
Last observed payload >= 224 B
2026-07-17 15:43:17 UTC @ 958,432 (tx 2358...f56e)*  ·  Size:931bytes
Scanned blocks
958,459
Scanned Txs
1,398,875,037
(*) Tx = transaction in that block with the highest OP_RETURN payload. If tied, first transaction in block order is used.

Size Metrics

OP_RETURN payload (all)
5.03 GB
Payload in txs with >= 224 B
7.02 MB (7,015,588 B)
Payload share from txs with >= 224 B
0.140 %
OP_RETURN data (script)
5.71 GB
OP_RETURN output serialized
7.86 GB
Payload push overhead
684.79 MB
Definition for >=224 B metrics: a Tx qualifies if it has at least one OP_RETURN output payload >= 224 bytes.

Output Metrics

OP_RETURN outputs created
238,529,254
Outputs with payload >= 224 B
3,436
Output share >= 224 B
0.001440 %
Txs with OP_RETURN
237,896,898
Total Tx outputs
3,831,672,580
Non-OP_RETURN outputs
3,593,143,326
OP_RETURN tx share
17.006 %
Time Series

OP_RETURN Data by Year

Payload bytes Push overhead bytes
Y-axis: GB per year
0 0.4 0.8 1.2 1.6 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025 2026

By Year

CSV
Year OP_RETURN Outputs TXs with OP_RETURN Payload Script Avg payload/output Share Max Payload Blocks
2026 57,089,107 57,000,130 951.74 MB 1.12 GB 16.7 B 18.930 % 184 KB 28,118
2025 44,342,296 44,190,163 751.00 MB 881.89 MB 16.9 B 14.937 % 985 KB 53,082
2024 83,164,438 83,087,898 563.37 MB 811.52 MB 6.8 B 11.205 % 80 KB 53,473
2023 1,927,691 1,879,343 69.96 MB 75.61 MB 36.3 B 1.391 % 80 B 53,999
2022 1,943,342 1,873,832 127.00 MB 132.11 MB 65.3 B 2.526 % 80 B 53,188
2021 2,949,557 2,868,415 162.08 MB 169.49 MB 54.9 B 3.224 % 80 B 52,686
2020 7,915,402 7,845,311 442.95 MB 463.42 MB 56.0 B 8.810 % 86 B 53,222
2019 28,398,777 28,360,598 1.55 GB 1.63 GB 54.7 B 30.905 % 80 B 54,232
2018 6,795,367 6,788,399 302.89 MB 319.09 MB 44.6 B 6.024 % 80 B 54,498
2017 2,254,393 2,253,947 63.03 MB 67.55 MB 28.0 B 1.254 % 80 B 55,928
2016 1,080,837 1,080,819 31.04 MB 33.21 MB 28.7 B 0.617 % 80 B 54,851
2015 654,756 654,754 8.51 MB 9.53 MB 13.0 B 0.169 % 80 B 54,321
2014 12,851 12,849 358.01 KB 383.79 KB 27.9 B 0.007 % 186 B 58,865
2013 440 440 18.48 KB 19.39 KB 42.0 B 0.000 % 983 B 63,433
2012 0 0 0.00 B 0.00 B 0.0 B 0.000 % 0 B 54,526
2011 0 0 0.00 B 0.00 B 0.0 B 0.000 % 0 B 59,627
2010 0 0 0.00 B 0.00 B 0.0 B 0.000 % 0 B 67,920
2009 0 0 0.00 B 0.00 B 0.0 B 0.000 % 0 B 32,490

By Subsidy Epoch

CSV
Epoch OP_RETURN Outputs TXs with OP_RETURN Payload Script Avg payload/output Share Max Payload Blocks
Epoch 1 0 0 0.00 B 0.00 B 0.0 B 0.000 % 0 B 210,000
Epoch 2 1,170,602 1,170,598 22.32 MB 24.38 MB 19.1 B 0.444 % 983 B 210,000
Epoch 3 42,726,155 42,654,440 2.22 GB 2.33 GB 51.9 B 44.116 % 80 B 210,000
Epoch 4 11,311,356 11,041,938 556.29 MB 586.09 MB 49.2 B 11.064 % 8 KB 210,000
Epoch 5 183,321,141 183,029,922 2.23 GB 2.78 GB 12.2 B 44.376 % 985 KB 118,459

OP_RETURN Outputs by Year

OP_RETURN outputs
Y-axis: count per year
0 20.8M 41.6M 62.4M 83.2M 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025 2026

Average OP_RETURN Output Size (Payload Bytes) by Year

Y-axis: bytes per output (year)
0.0 B 16.3 B 32.7 B 49.0 B 65.3 B 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025 2026
Distribution

Bucket Distribution (log scale)

Bar length uses log10(count + 1) so long-tail buckets remain visible.
0 512,922 1-40 204,042,523 41-75 5,814,172 76-80 28,132,464 81-223 23,737 224-255 1,496 256-1000 1,393 1001-10000 478 10001-20000 24 20001-40000 17 40001-60000 4 60001-80000 4 80001-100000 17 100001-200000 1 200001-300000 0 300001-400000 0 400001-500000 0 500001-600000 0 600001-700000 0 700001-800000 0 800001-900000 0 900001-1000000 2 >1000000 0

Payload Buckets

CSV
Bucket Count Share First Seen (UTC) First Height
0 512,922 0.2150 % 2013-03-29 14:18:58 UTC 228,596
1-40 204,042,523 85.5419 % 2013-03-29 14:18:58 UTC 228,596
41-75 5,814,172 2.4375 % 2013-10-29 22:11:04 UTC 266,766
76-80 28,132,464 11.7941 % 2013-11-05 11:23:00 UTC 268,060
81-223 23,737 0.0100 % 2013-07-03 15:48:33 UTC 244,591
224-255 1,496 0.0006 % 2024-02-09 09:29:28 UTC 829,644
256-1000 1,393 0.0006 % 2013-11-05 11:23:00 UTC 268,060
1001-10000 478 0.0002 % 2024-01-26 21:44:26 UTC 827,529
10001-20000 24 0.0000 % 2024-10-30 16:52:39 UTC 868,113
20001-40000 17 0.0000 % 2024-11-18 03:26:28 UTC 870,805
40001-60000 4 0.0000 % 2024-11-18 00:31:51 UTC 870,787
60001-80000 4 0.0000 % 2024-11-17 06:59:15 UTC 870,683
80001-100000 17 0.0000 % 2025-05-10 09:14:50 UTC 896,088
100001-200000 1 0.0000 % 2026-05-18 18:30:04 UTC 949,973
200001-300000 0 0.0000 % – –
300001-400000 0 0.0000 % – –
400001-500000 0 0.0000 % – –
500001-600000 0 0.0000 % – –
600001-700000 0 0.0000 % – –
700001-800000 0 0.0000 % – –
800001-900000 0 0.0000 % – –
900001-1000000 2 0.0000 % 2025-05-14 16:36:24 UTC 896,696
>1000000 0 0.0000 % – –
Deep Dive

Record Milestones Timeline

Record max payload Record max OP_RETURN outputs per tx
payload outputs/tx 2013-02-26 2017-04-21 2021-06-14 2009-01-03 2025-08-07

Milestones

CSV
Height Time (UTC) Type Label Transaction Value
244,591 2013-07-03 15:48:33 UTC First in bucket 81-223 First OP_RETURN payload in bucket 81-223 e4d2...8595 –
228,596 2013-03-29 14:18:58 UTC Record max payload New record: max OP_RETURN payload bytes 1a2e...93fc 20
228,596 2013-03-29 14:18:58 UTC Record max OP_RETURN outputs per tx New record: max OP_RETURN outputs in single tx eb31...2f29 1
228,596 2013-03-29 14:18:58 UTC First in bucket 0 First OP_RETURN payload in bucket 0 eb31...2f29 –
228,596 2013-03-29 14:18:58 UTC First in bucket 1-40 First OP_RETURN payload in bucket 1-40 1a2e...93fc –
0 2009-01-03 18:15:05 UTC Record max payload New record: max OP_RETURN payload bytes – 0
0 2009-01-03 18:15:05 UTC Record max OP_RETURN outputs per tx New record: max OP_RETURN outputs in single tx – 0
Showing 31–37 of 37
Rows: 10 20 50
1 2 3 4
Large Payload

Large Payload Activity by Month

TX count (payload >= 224 bytes) Max payload in month (log scale)
Bars show monthly transaction count. Line shows monthly maximum payload size.
0 224.0 B 273 1.8 KB 546 14.9 KB 819 120.9 KB 1,092 984.6 KB 2013-11 2024-02 2024-04 2024-08 2024-11 2025-01 2025-03 2025-05 2025-07 2025-09 2025-11 2026-01 2026-03 2026-05 2026-07

Payload Size Distribution

Histogram buckets for transactions with OP_RETURN payload >= 224 bytes.
0 374 748 1,122 1,496 224-255 224-255 256-511 256-511 512-1023 512-1k 1024-2047 1k-2k 2048-4095 2k-4k 4096-8191 4k-8k 8192-16383 8k-16k 16384-32767 16k-32k 32768-65535 32k-65k 65536-131071 65k-131k 131072-262143 131k-262k 262144-524287 262k-524k >=524288 >=524k

Top 20 Largest Payload Transactions with payload >= 224 bytes

Top transactions by maximum OP_RETURN payload bytes in tx.
#1 b47e...59c7 984,587 B #2 516c...406b 979,842 B #3 0000...de07 184,303 B #4 64ab...e12a 99,000 B #5 91df...bf69 98,196 B #6 95d1...6052 97,446 B #7 156c...f077 97,347 B #8 976e...e3a3 97,338 B #9 4440...67df 94,496 B #10 eaf4...f968 86,820 B #11 8546...3c87 82,573 B #12 cf15...72c8 82,566 B #13 87ab...7dbd 82,560 B #14 ac5b...a655 82,560 B #15 e4a5...7204 82,559 B #16 baca...d5f8 82,558 B #17 ebb1...3e8e 82,558 B #18 5511...f9b9 82,549 B #19 00b8...5c04 82,547 B #20 b8b0...d571 82,546 B

Transactions with OP_RETURN payload >= 224 bytes

CSV
Height Time (UTC) Type Label Transaction Value
950,229 2026-05-20 11:47:40 UTC Large payload transaction Seen tx with OP_RETURN payload of 290 bytes 18c5...35ef 290
950,228 2026-05-20 11:38:02 UTC Large payload transaction Seen tx with OP_RETURN payload of 295 bytes 902f...5fbc 295
950,223 2026-05-20 11:04:44 UTC Large payload transaction Seen tx with OP_RETURN payload of 293 bytes 4719...3f3b 293
950,217 2026-05-20 09:15:52 UTC Large payload transaction Seen tx with OP_RETURN payload of 290 bytes ffd7...67ed 290
950,215 2026-05-20 08:12:02 UTC Large payload transaction Seen tx with OP_RETURN payload of 289 bytes 3b3b...e700 289
950,209 2026-05-20 07:16:50 UTC Large payload transaction Seen tx with OP_RETURN payload of 292 bytes e594...96b7 292
950,202 2026-05-20 06:48:16 UTC Large payload transaction Seen tx with OP_RETURN payload of 295 bytes 69b4...ceb3 295
950,189 2026-05-20 04:57:00 UTC Large payload transaction Seen tx with OP_RETURN payload of 292 bytes c86a...bff2 292
950,181 2026-05-20 03:20:50 UTC Large payload transaction Seen tx with OP_RETURN payload of 293 bytes f0f1...90f4 293
950,173 2026-05-20 02:33:04 UTC Large payload transaction Seen tx with OP_RETURN payload of 293 bytes 630e...2a0b 293
950,170 2026-05-20 02:15:04 UTC Large payload transaction Seen tx with OP_RETURN payload of 293 bytes cafc...99e6 293
950,167 2026-05-20 01:59:14 UTC Large payload transaction Seen tx with OP_RETURN payload of 295 bytes f75b...d03c 295
950,163 2026-05-20 01:13:55 UTC Large payload transaction Seen tx with OP_RETURN payload of 293 bytes d048...7a95 293
950,153 2026-05-20 00:11:52 UTC Large payload transaction Seen tx with OP_RETURN payload of 289 bytes fbe8...c85c 289
950,149 2026-05-19 23:27:35 UTC Large payload transaction Seen tx with OP_RETURN payload of 293 bytes 7ba6...b56d 293
950,141 2026-05-19 22:01:29 UTC Large payload transaction Seen tx with OP_RETURN payload of 293 bytes 7996...f8fd 293
950,136 2026-05-19 21:18:26 UTC Large payload transaction Seen tx with OP_RETURN payload of 293 bytes dc7b...ca53 293
950,134 2026-05-19 20:51:47 UTC Large payload transaction Seen tx with OP_RETURN payload of 290 bytes fe4f...ec30 290
950,131 2026-05-19 20:30:03 UTC Large payload transaction Seen tx with OP_RETURN payload of 295 bytes f665...9ee5 295
950,124 2026-05-19 19:49:56 UTC Large payload transaction Seen tx with OP_RETURN payload of 293 bytes e6dc...3859 293
950,105 2026-05-19 16:39:43 UTC Large payload transaction Seen tx with OP_RETURN payload of 295 bytes 595b...9d5e 295
950,092 2026-05-19 14:31:19 UTC Large payload transaction Seen tx with OP_RETURN payload of 292 bytes 42a3...cf79 292
950,086 2026-05-19 13:40:36 UTC Large payload transaction Seen tx with OP_RETURN payload of 292 bytes cb97...b548 292
950,074 2026-05-19 11:57:32 UTC Large payload transaction Seen tx with OP_RETURN payload of 241 bytes 4736...5e25 241
949,982 2026-05-18 20:03:41 UTC Large payload transaction Seen tx with OP_RETURN payload of 730 bytes 71c0...c928 730
949,974 2026-05-18 18:37:22 UTC Large payload transaction Seen tx with OP_RETURN payload of 646 bytes 1a83...11ab 646
949,974 2026-05-18 18:37:22 UTC Large payload transaction Seen tx with OP_RETURN payload of 662 bytes 28d1...6d2f 662
949,974 2026-05-18 18:37:22 UTC Large payload transaction Seen tx with OP_RETURN payload of 610 bytes 3fda...3431 610
949,974 2026-05-18 18:37:22 UTC Large payload transaction Seen tx with OP_RETURN payload of 638 bytes efc3...37e4 638
949,973 2026-05-18 18:30:04 UTC Large payload transaction Seen tx with OP_RETURN payload of 184,303 bytes 0000...de07 184,303
949,880 2026-05-18 02:22:51 UTC Large payload transaction Seen tx with OP_RETURN payload of 226 bytes 73ce...cec7 226
949,863 2026-05-17 22:43:24 UTC Large payload transaction Seen tx with OP_RETURN payload of 654 bytes 27b5...6ca7 654
949,846 2026-05-17 19:01:44 UTC Large payload transaction Seen tx with OP_RETURN payload of 1,538 bytes ac86...525c 1,538
949,846 2026-05-17 19:01:44 UTC Large payload transaction Seen tx with OP_RETURN payload of 1,714 bytes aff7...5d15 1,714
949,837 2026-05-17 17:24:14 UTC Large payload transaction Seen tx with OP_RETURN payload of 658 bytes 2a6b...7340 658
949,837 2026-05-17 17:24:14 UTC Large payload transaction Seen tx with OP_RETURN payload of 690 bytes 457b...ff57 690
949,837 2026-05-17 17:24:14 UTC Large payload transaction Seen tx with OP_RETURN payload of 698 bytes 9125...fc10 698
949,837 2026-05-17 17:24:14 UTC Large payload transaction Seen tx with OP_RETURN payload of 726 bytes fadc...b32a 726
949,831 2026-05-17 16:37:14 UTC Large payload transaction Seen tx with OP_RETURN payload of 1,642 bytes 3135...5087 1,642
949,831 2026-05-17 16:37:14 UTC Large payload transaction Seen tx with OP_RETURN payload of 1,634 bytes 3de8...fc05 1,634
949,831 2026-05-17 16:37:14 UTC Large payload transaction Seen tx with OP_RETURN payload of 1,574 bytes 4bec...955d 1,574
949,831 2026-05-17 16:37:14 UTC Large payload transaction Seen tx with OP_RETURN payload of 686 bytes 6db0...97ea 686
949,825 2026-05-17 16:13:59 UTC Large payload transaction Seen tx with OP_RETURN payload of 726 bytes 3448...a3e4 726
949,825 2026-05-17 16:13:59 UTC Large payload transaction Seen tx with OP_RETURN payload of 722 bytes 4b9b...b518 722
949,825 2026-05-17 16:13:59 UTC Large payload transaction Seen tx with OP_RETURN payload of 730 bytes 55d8...1110 730
949,825 2026-05-17 16:13:59 UTC Large payload transaction Seen tx with OP_RETURN payload of 746 bytes 67a6...3c5e 746
949,825 2026-05-17 16:13:59 UTC Large payload transaction Seen tx with OP_RETURN payload of 722 bytes 760c...e9c0 722
949,825 2026-05-17 16:13:59 UTC Large payload transaction Seen tx with OP_RETURN payload of 726 bytes a941...d30b 726
949,824 2026-05-17 16:07:35 UTC Large payload transaction Seen tx with OP_RETURN payload of 710 bytes 5879...7d3e 710
949,824 2026-05-17 16:07:35 UTC Large payload transaction Seen tx with OP_RETURN payload of 730 bytes 9906...eafc 730
Showing 2,251–2,300 of 3,416
Rows: 10 20 50
1 … 44 45 46 47 48 … 69