Replace Solana Price Polling with a WebSocket Feed

Price polling is always late

REST polling for prices is wasteful: you keep asking even when nothing changed, and you're always one interval behind. A WebSocket pushes updates the moment a trade happens. A Datastream price subscription pushes the quote when the market moves, which is the behavior price tickers and bots actually need.

What you need

• Node.js 18+
• A Solana Tracker API key (free) and Datastream key (Premium+, same dashboard), WebSocket Datastream starts on Premium

Step 1: Connect

import WebSocket from 'ws';
(globalThis as any).WebSocket = WebSocket;
const { Datastream } = await import('@solana-tracker/data-api');

const ds = new Datastream({ wsUrl: `wss://datastream.solanatracker.io/${process.env.ST_DATASTREAM_KEY}` });
ds.on('connected', () => console.log('Live'));
ds.connect();

Step 2: Subscribe to a token's price

ds.subscribe.price.aggregated(MINT_ADDRESS).on((update) => {
  console.log(update.token, update.aggregated.median, update.aggregated.median);
});

Step 3: Track multiple tokens

const priceState = new Map<string, number>();
const mints = [MINT_A, MINT_B, MINT_C];
for (const mint of mints) {
  ds.subscribe.price.aggregated(mint).on(u => priceState.set(u.token, u.aggregated.median));
}

Step 4: Reconnect when the feed drops

ds.on('disconnected', () => {
  setTimeout(() => ds.connect(), 1000);
});

Tip: combine the WebSocket feed with a one-off REST call (/tokens/{mint}) at startup, so your dashboard shows an initial value immediately and then moves live.

FAQ

Why WebSocket instead of REST?

You get updates push-based within milliseconds, without the rate-limit waste of constant polling.

How many tokens can I subscribe to at once?

Multiple; the Datastream supports many concurrent subscriptions with unlimited messages on the right tier.

What if the connection drops?

Catch the disconnected event and reconnect with a short backoff, as in step 4.

Related: Get a Solana token price (REST) -> · Solana Data API

Download the example

Clone the full runnable project on GitHub, npm install && npm start with your keys in .env. Or open it in StackBlitz to run in your browser (free). See the tutorial for step-by-step context.