ar.io DocumentationFunds & Faucet
Everything in the sandbox runs on testnet value. Depending on what you're doing you need two or three tokens — all free.
| Token | Network | What it's for | Where to get it |
|---|---|---|---|
| SOL | Solana devnet | Transaction fees on every Solana action | solana airdrop 1 <address> --url devnet or faucet.solana.com |
| ARIO (staging) | Solana devnet | Buying ArNS names and paying for uploads | The ar.io faucet → faucet.services.ar-io.dev |
| Base Sepolia ETH | Base Sepolia | (optional) Funding credits with base-eth or the x402 path | Any Base Sepolia faucet |
You always need a little devnet SOL — even after claiming ARIO — because SOL pays the transaction fee for using your tokens (funding credits, buying names, etc.).
The ARIO faucet
The staging-ARIO faucet lives at faucet.services.ar-io.dev. It's GitHub-gated to prevent sybil abuse:
Sign in with GitHub
Your GitHub account must be at least 30 days old.
Enter your Solana address
The address you want to receive staging ARIO on.
Claim
The faucet dispenses 2,500 ARIO per claim and pays the transfer fee for you.
Rate limit: one claim per GitHub account per 8-hour window.
A wallet that already holds the maximum (2,500 ARIO) won't receive more — you'll see
Recipient … already has more than the maximum quantity. Claim to a fresh address, or spend
down first.
The faucet page also displays the current Solana devnet program IDs and the ARIO mint, copy-ready — handy if you're accessing the devnet contracts directly with the ar.io SDK. See the Reference for the current values.
Trouble claiming, or your GitHub account didn't pass verification? Ask in the ar.io Discord.
Agents and CI
The faucet's GitHub OAuth consent is a browser flow and can't be completed headlessly, so an agent or CI job can't claim on its own. The reliable pattern is:
A human claims once
A person signs in with GitHub and claims 2,500 ARIO to the wallet address your agent will use.
The agent uses the ARIO
From there, everything is a scriptable API call — uploading, funding credits, and buying/resolving ArNS names all work without any browser interaction. Re-claim (again by a human) when the balance runs low.
Faucet agent skill. The faucet ships an ario-testnet-faucet agent skill documenting the
claim API and flow. Pair it with the human-claims-once pattern above so your agent has funds
without needing to solve the OAuth gate.
Next steps
Uploading & Credits
Spend your tokens: upload data and fund credits
ArNS Names
Buy a devnet name with your staging ARIO
How is this guide?
Testnet Sandbox
A free, public Solana-devnet sandbox for the full ar.io stack — upload, pay, buy ArNS names, and serve data with no mainnet and no real money.
Uploading & Credits
Upload ANS-104 data items to the ar.io sandbox with the Turbo SDK, use the free tier, and fund upload credits with testnet value.