OP_RETURN Stats·BitcoinStats.io

∞/21M
Overview

OP_RETURN Snapshot

OP_RETURN Outputs Created
238,527,311
at height 958,455
Payload (all)
5.03 GB
Height
958,455
Last Data Update
2026-07-17 21:28:44 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 21:28:36 UTC @ 958,455 (tx 9850...8c7f)*  ·  Size:88bytes
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
958,456
Scanned Txs
1,398,863,096
(*) 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
684.78 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
238,527,311
Outputs with payload >= 224 B
3,436
Output share >= 224 B
0.001441 %
Txs with OP_RETURN
237,894,956
Total Tx outputs
3,831,640,049
Non-OP_RETURN outputs
3,593,112,738
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 57,087,164 56,998,188 951.69 MB 1.12 GB 16.7 B 18.929 % 184 KB 28,115
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 30.906 % 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 5 183,319,198 183,027,980 2.23 GB 2.78 GB 12.2 B 44.376 % 985 KB 118,456

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.
0 512,921 1-40 204,040,770 41-75 5,814,018 76-80 28,132,432 81-223 23,734 224-255 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
0 512,921 0.2150 % 2013-03-29 14:18:58 UTC 228,596
1-40 204,040,770 85.5419 % 2013-03-29 14:18:58 UTC 228,596
41-75 5,814,018 2.4375 % 2013-10-29 22:11:04 UTC 266,766
76-80 28,132,432 11.7942 % 2013-11-05 11:23:00 UTC 268,060
81-223 23,734 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
945,129 2026-04-15 01:40:48 UTC Large payload transaction Seen tx with OP_RETURN payload of 1,006 bytes 0451...3362 1,006
945,011 2026-04-14 09:23:25 UTC Large payload transaction Seen tx with OP_RETURN payload of 930 bytes 80b1...5400 930
944,992 2026-04-14 05:56:50 UTC Large payload transaction Seen tx with OP_RETURN payload of 800 bytes b2f9...83bb 800
944,665 2026-04-12 01:27:28 UTC Large payload transaction Seen tx with OP_RETURN payload of 933 bytes 4ea6...91cb 933
944,665 2026-04-12 01:27:28 UTC Large payload transaction Seen tx with OP_RETURN payload of 880 bytes 9e6c...48b7 880
944,565 2026-04-11 06:20:53 UTC Large payload transaction Seen tx with OP_RETURN payload of 795 bytes 93a7...eae1 795
944,508 2026-04-10 20:01:02 UTC Large payload transaction Seen tx with OP_RETURN payload of 802 bytes d603...a5cd 802
943,960 2026-04-06 21:06:13 UTC Large payload transaction Seen tx with OP_RETURN payload of 256 bytes a5e6...2aa3 256
943,676 2026-04-04 21:53:50 UTC Large payload transaction Seen tx with OP_RETURN payload of 903 bytes eb4d...ac84 903
943,457 2026-04-03 04:28:04 UTC Large payload transaction Seen tx with OP_RETURN payload of 923 bytes 2835...84a5 923
943,344 2026-04-02 10:47:52 UTC Large payload transaction Seen tx with OP_RETURN payload of 915 bytes 123c...23bf 915
943,344 2026-04-02 10:47:52 UTC Large payload transaction Seen tx with OP_RETURN payload of 1,166 bytes 2d0e...d158 1,166
943,248 2026-04-01 17:41:52 UTC Large payload transaction Seen tx with OP_RETURN payload of 1,175 bytes a786...6c67 1,175
943,222 2026-04-01 13:50:37 UTC Large payload transaction Seen tx with OP_RETURN payload of 1,214 bytes 483e...ca22 1,214
943,222 2026-04-01 13:50:37 UTC Large payload transaction Seen tx with OP_RETURN payload of 272 bytes a3bf...f69b 272
943,222 2026-04-01 13:50:37 UTC Large payload transaction Seen tx with OP_RETURN payload of 1,176 bytes ed00...ddbe 1,176
943,164 2026-04-01 05:25:14 UTC Large payload transaction Seen tx with OP_RETURN payload of 914 bytes 488a...f0fd 914
943,164 2026-04-01 05:25:14 UTC Large payload transaction Seen tx with OP_RETURN payload of 1,183 bytes c10a...c7a9 1,183
943,151 2026-04-01 03:30:42 UTC Large payload transaction Seen tx with OP_RETURN payload of 1,166 bytes 429c...567e 1,166
943,151 2026-04-01 03:30:42 UTC Large payload transaction Seen tx with OP_RETURN payload of 1,169 bytes 4f75...3ebc 1,169
943,151 2026-04-01 03:30:42 UTC Large payload transaction Seen tx with OP_RETURN payload of 922 bytes fea8...54ab 922
943,036 2026-03-31 08:34:11 UTC Large payload transaction Seen tx with OP_RETURN payload of 1,190 bytes 0be8...3961 1,190
943,027 2026-03-31 07:06:32 UTC Large payload transaction Seen tx with OP_RETURN payload of 1,204 bytes 9c30...e692 1,204
943,027 2026-03-31 07:06:32 UTC Large payload transaction Seen tx with OP_RETURN payload of 1,190 bytes b2c2...68c4 1,190
942,959 2026-03-30 18:39:16 UTC Large payload transaction Seen tx with OP_RETURN payload of 316 bytes ad06...650e 316
942,911 2026-03-30 09:58:52 UTC Large payload transaction Seen tx with OP_RETURN payload of 1,181 bytes 1732...53fc 1,181
942,911 2026-03-30 09:58:52 UTC Large payload transaction Seen tx with OP_RETURN payload of 914 bytes 40ac...2d91 914
942,899 2026-03-30 06:37:10 UTC Large payload transaction Seen tx with OP_RETURN payload of 1,176 bytes b3e4...60a9 1,176
942,847 2026-03-29 20:42:37 UTC Large payload transaction Seen tx with OP_RETURN payload of 6,434 bytes 7895...74d6 6,434
942,826 2026-03-29 17:25:29 UTC Large payload transaction Seen tx with OP_RETURN payload of 919 bytes 4e85...0ff8 919
942,826 2026-03-29 17:25:29 UTC Large payload transaction Seen tx with OP_RETURN payload of 903 bytes e530...3562 903
942,826 2026-03-29 17:25:29 UTC Large payload transaction Seen tx with OP_RETURN payload of 904 bytes f320...873f 904
942,798 2026-03-29 13:08:01 UTC Large payload transaction Seen tx with OP_RETURN payload of 1,170 bytes d854...5aad 1,170
942,666 2026-03-28 16:30:58 UTC Large payload transaction Seen tx with OP_RETURN payload of 1,184 bytes 700d...edef 1,184
942,662 2026-03-28 16:04:32 UTC Large payload transaction Seen tx with OP_RETURN payload of 1,187 bytes 301b...bb4e 1,187
942,662 2026-03-28 16:04:32 UTC Large payload transaction Seen tx with OP_RETURN payload of 691 bytes baa1...f79f 691
942,644 2026-03-28 13:38:57 UTC Large payload transaction Seen tx with OP_RETURN payload of 1,177 bytes c74f...94e4 1,177
942,601 2026-03-28 08:13:41 UTC Large payload transaction Seen tx with OP_RETURN payload of 919 bytes ae97...cd89 919
942,568 2026-03-28 04:16:51 UTC Large payload transaction Seen tx with OP_RETURN payload of 1,185 bytes 3097...0668 1,185
942,540 2026-03-28 00:03:41 UTC Large payload transaction Seen tx with OP_RETURN payload of 909 bytes f116...42e2 909
942,446 2026-03-27 08:26:20 UTC Large payload transaction Seen tx with OP_RETURN payload of 1,186 bytes a7c4...3269 1,186
942,410 2026-03-27 04:11:10 UTC Large payload transaction Seen tx with OP_RETURN payload of 1,203 bytes 126d...108e 1,203
942,410 2026-03-27 04:11:10 UTC Large payload transaction Seen tx with OP_RETURN payload of 1,204 bytes 4960...22a8 1,204
942,410 2026-03-27 04:11:10 UTC Large payload transaction Seen tx with OP_RETURN payload of 922 bytes 9e33...fbe0 922
942,410 2026-03-27 04:11:10 UTC Large payload transaction Seen tx with OP_RETURN payload of 1,210 bytes af22...e55d 1,210
942,410 2026-03-27 04:11:10 UTC Large payload transaction Seen tx with OP_RETURN payload of 927 bytes f5bb...550d 927
942,397 2026-03-27 02:03:39 UTC Large payload transaction Seen tx with OP_RETURN payload of 1,193 bytes bdbf...3564 1,193
942,391 2026-03-27 00:51:36 UTC Large payload transaction Seen tx with OP_RETURN payload of 1,187 bytes 3674...b74c 1,187
942,391 2026-03-27 00:51:36 UTC Large payload transaction Seen tx with OP_RETURN payload of 1,212 bytes ee24...a919 1,212
942,386 2026-03-26 23:49:02 UTC Large payload transaction Seen tx with OP_RETURN payload of 1,182 bytes 270b...813d 1,182
Showing 2,401–2,450 of 3,416
Rows: 10 20 50
1 … 47 48 49 50 51 … 69