The Graph is a decentralised network that reads raw blockchain data, organises it and serves it to applications through APIs called subgraphs, which developers query with GraphQL. Its token, GRT, is staked by the operators who do the indexing and is used to pay for queries. The newest change is the Rewards Eligibility Oracle (REO), described by The Graph on 25 August 2026. Under it, Indexers earn indexing rewards only if they actually serve qualifying queries. Staking and signalling alone no longer qualify.
What changed in 2026: rewards tied to served queries
The Graph's blog post of 25 August 2026 says the Rewards Eligibility Oracle "ties indexing rewards to the service delivered by Indexers on The Graph Network". The post says "REO is running now". It was introduced in governance proposal GIP-0079 and deployed as part of GIP-0088. It does not give an exact activation date.
The published criteria:
- An Indexer becomes eligible after serving at least one qualifying query on five or more separate days within a rolling 28-day window.
- A qualifying query must return HTTP 200, respond in under 5,000 milliseconds and come from an Indexer within 50,000 blocks of the chain head.
- Only queries on subgraphs with at least 500 GRT of curation signal count.
- The oracle checks service data once a day. Eligibility lasts 14 days from each renewal.
According to the same post, "Total issuance does not change. Who receives that issuance does." An ineligible Indexer's rewards are withheld, not confiscated. Its stake is untouched, it can keep earning query fees, and pending rewards can still be claimed if it regains eligibility before the allocation goes stale. Its Delegators do not receive indexing rewards in the meantime either.
The foundation for REO: Horizon (December 2025)
REO runs on Horizon, a protocol upgrade on Arbitrum One. A Graph forum notice to Indexers dated 14 November 2025 scheduled it for mid-December 2025. The Graph's technical roadmap of 17 February 2026 confirms it launched in December 2025. The notice says Horizon introduced "data service-specific staking, longer-lived allocations, and the foundation for new data services". In practice, the protocol is no longer built only around subgraphs. Other data services can now share its staking and payment system.
The roadmap of 17 February 2026 set these targets for the year:
- Q1 2026: Horizon-based Subgraph Service rollout on mainnet.
- Q2 2026: a subgraph gateway compliant with x402 (pay-per-query for AI agents), with MCP and A2A support. Public beta of Tycho, a stream of liquidity changes across decentralised exchanges.
- Q3 2026: a Substreams Data Service on mainnet.
- Q4 2026: development of Amp, a blockchain-native SQL database, and a Substreams REO launch on testnet and mainnet.
These are targets from February's roadmap, not announcements that each item has shipped.
What problem The Graph solves
The Graph's documentation explains that blockchains are built to write and verify transactions, not to be read efficiently. Contract state sits in low-level formats with no relational structure. There is no query language beyond basic RPC methods, and historical queries need archive nodes. An app that shows a wallet's history or a lending pool's positions would otherwise have to run and maintain its own indexing servers.
A subgraph defines which contracts, events and entities to index, and how to turn them into a queryable data set. Independent Indexers on the network process the data and serve it over GraphQL. The documentation says the network has more than 50 independent Indexer nodes.
The Graph's product line now goes beyond subgraphs. It includes Substreams for streaming data, a Token API that the roadmap says covers 10 chains, Tycho and Amp.
From hosted service to decentralised network
The Graph used to run a centralised hosted service alongside the network. According to its Sunrise FAQ, the hosted service endpoints shut down at 10 a.m. PT on 12 June 2024. Since then, all subgraph queries go through The Graph Network.
Do REO rules let your Indexer earn rewards?
Answer a few questions to see where the Rewards Eligibility Oracle's published criteria leave your indexing rewards.
What is your role on The Graph Network?
- I run an Indexer → next question
- I delegate GRT to an Indexer → next question
- I curate or build subgraphs → Your signal decides which queries count
Has your Indexer served at least one qualifying query on five or more separate days within the rolling 28-day window?
- Yes → next question
- No → Indexing rewards withheld
Did those queries return HTTP 200, respond in under 5,000 milliseconds and come while your Indexer was within 50,000 blocks of the chain head?
- Yes → next question
- No → Indexing rewards withheld
Were the queries on subgraphs with at least 500 GRT of curation signal?
Does the Indexer you delegate to meet the REO service criteria?
Your Indexer meets the published REO criteria. The oracle checks service data once a day, and eligibility lasts 14 days from each renewal.
An ineligible Indexer's rewards are withheld, not confiscated. Its stake is untouched, it can keep earning query fees, and pending rewards can still be claimed if it regains eligibility before the allocation goes stale.
Delegators receive a share of their Indexer's fees and rewards, and an Indexer that meets the criteria keeps earning indexing rewards.
While an Indexer is ineligible, its Delegators do not receive indexing rewards either. Delegated GRT takes about 26 days to unbond.
Only queries on subgraphs with at least 500 GRT of curation signal count toward REO eligibility. The 1% curation tax is burned as soon as you signal.
This follows only the criteria in The Graph's 25 August 2026 post: it cannot check your Indexer's real service data, and governance can change the rules.
How GRT works
Figures from The Graph's tokenomics documentation:
| Item | Figure |
|---|---|
| Ticker | GRT |
| Initial supply | 10 billion GRT |
| Issuance target | 3% a year, paid as indexing rewards |
| Curation tax | 1%, burned when signalling on a subgraph |
| Delegation tax | 0.5%, burned when delegating |
| Query fee burn | 1% of query fees |
| Minimum Indexer self-stake | 100,000 GRT |
| Delegation cap | 16 times an Indexer's self-stake |
| Unbonding period | 28 epochs, about 26 days |
The documentation lists GRT contract addresses on both Ethereum mainnet and Arbitrum One. It says burns remove roughly 1% of supply a year, which partly offsets issuance. Circulating supply and market data move too quickly for an article, so a live data aggregator is the place to look them up.
The four network roles
- Developers build and query subgraphs and pay query fees in GRT.
- Indexers run the infrastructure, stake GRT and earn query fees plus indexing rewards. Since REO, rewards also depend on serving qualifying queries.
- Curators signal GRT on subgraphs they expect to be used, in exchange for a share of future query fees. The documentation encourages developers to curate their own subgraph with at least 3,000 GRT.
- Delegators delegate GRT to Indexers without running infrastructure and receive a share of those Indexers' fees and rewards.
Risks for participants
- Slashing: according to the tokenomics page, an Indexer that misbehaves loses 50% of that epoch's indexing rewards, which are burned, and 2.5% of self-stake, half of which is burned.
- Costs that are lost on entry: the 1% curation tax and 0.5% delegation tax are burned as soon as you signal or delegate.
- Locked funds: delegated GRT takes about 26 days to unbond.
- Rule changes: REO shows that reward conditions can change through governance. If an Indexer falls below the service thresholds, its indexing rewards are withheld, and its Delegators lose their share of those rewards too.
Who builds it
Yaniv Tal is The Graph's co-founder. The Block described him as project lead when The Graph Network went live on mainnet on 17 December 2020. In 2021 the core team behind The Graph formed Edge & Node, the core development company. Its founding partners include Tal, Brandon Ramirez and Jannis Pohlmann.
