---
title: getBlockTime
hideTableOfContents: true
h1: getBlockTime RPC Method
---

Returns the estimated production time of a block.

<Callout type="info">
  Each validator reports their UTC time to the ledger on a regular interval by
  intermittently adding a timestamp to a Vote for a particular block. A
  requested block's time is calculated from the stake-weighted mean of the Vote
  timestamps in a set of recent blocks recorded on the ledger.
</Callout>

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### Parameters

<Parameter type={"u64"} required={true}>
  block number, identified by Slot
</Parameter>

### Result

- `<i64>` - estimated production time, as Unix timestamp (seconds since the Unix
  epoch)

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### Code sample

```shell
curl https://api.devnet.solana.com -s -X POST -H "Content-Type: application/json" -d '
  {
    "jsonrpc":"2.0", "id":1,
    "method": "getBlockTime",
    "params":[5]
  }
'
```

### Response

When a block time is available:

```json
{
  "jsonrpc": "2.0",
  "result": 1574721591,
  "id": 1
}
```

When a block time is not available:

```json
{
  "jsonrpc": "2.0",
  "error": {
    "code": -32004,
    "message": "Block not available for slot 150"
  },
  "id": 1
}
```

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