> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.near.org/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# What is NEAR Indexer?

> A framework to handle real-time events on the blockchain

As scaling dApps enter NEAR’s mainnet, an issue may arise: how do they quickly and efficiently access state from our deployed smart contracts, and cut out the cruft? Contracts may grow to have complex data structures and querying the network RPC may not be the optimal way to access state data.

The [NEAR Indexer](https://github.com/near/nearcore/tree/master/chain/indexer) is a micro-framework specifically designed to handle real-time events on the blockchain, allowing to capture and index streams of blocks in a customized manner.

With the NEAR Indexer, developers can perform both high-level data aggregation and low-level introspection of blockchain events.

<Tip>
  For those searching to not build their own indexer, [Neardata](https://neardata.xyz) provides a hosted stream of blocks as a direct replacement for the deprecated NEAR Lake.
</Tip>

***

## How It Works

The NEAR Indexer works by **running a node** and processing blocks as they are added to the blockchain. The framework provides a stream of blocks, allowing developers to subscribe and process these blocks in real-time.

<Tip>
  Learn how to run it following the [tutorial](./tutorials/near-indexer).
</Tip>

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## Comparison with [NEAR Lake Framework](./near-lake-framework)

<Warning>
  **NEAR Lake deprecated as of March 24, 2026.** The comparison below is kept for historical context. For new projects, see [Neardata](https://neardata.xyz) as a drop-in replacement for NEAR Lake.
</Warning>

Comparing to NEAR Lake Framework in terms of latency the NEAR Indexer is significantly faster as it reads data directly from the blockchain the same way as RPC nodes do.

| Feature                                                             | Indexer Framework                                                                      | Lake Framework                                                                                                                                                                                                                             |
| ------------------------------------------------------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ |
| Allows to follow the blocks and transactions in the NEAR Protocol   | **Yes**                                                                                | **Yes**<br />(but only mainnet and testnet networks)                                                                                                                                                                                       |
| Decentralized                                                       | **Yes**                                                                                | No<br />(Aurora dumps the blocks to AWS S3)                                                                                                                                                                                                |
| Reaction time (end-to-end)                                          | minimum 3.8s (estimated average 5-7s)                                                  | [minimum 3.9s (estimated average 6-8s)](./near-lake-framework#latency)                                                                                                                                                                     |
| Reaction time (framework overhead only)                             | 0.1s                                                                                   | 0.2-2.2s                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   |
| Estimated cost of infrastructure                                    | [\$500+/mo](https://near-nodes.io/rpc/hardware-rpc)                                    | [**\$20/mo**](./near-lake-framework#cost)                                                                                                                                                                                                  |
| Ease of maintenance                                                 | Advanced<br />(need to follow every nearcore upgrade, and sync state)                  | **Easy**<br />(deploy once and forget)                                                                                                                                                                                                     |
| How long will it take to start?                                     | days (on mainnet/testnet)                                                              | **seconds**                                                                                                                                                                                                                                |
| Ease of local development                                           | Advanced<br />(localnet is a good option, but testing on testnet/mainnet is too heavy) | **Easy**<br />(see [tutorials](./tutorials/near-lake-state-changes-indexer))                                                                                                                                                               |
| Programming languages that a custom indexer can be implemented with | Rust only                                                                              | **Any**<br />(currently, helper packages are released in [Python](http://pypi.org/project/near-lake-framework), [JavaScript](https://www.npmjs.com/package/near-lake-framework), and [Rust](https://crates.io/crates/near-lake-framework)) |

***