Polygon's real-time transactions per second (TPS) typically ranges from 68 to over 109 TPS during normal network operation, with the 2-second block time enabling each block to contain hundreds of individual transactions. This throughput significantly exceeds Ethereum mainnet's capacity of approximately 15–30 TPS.
The relationship between block time and TPS is direct: shorter block times mean more blocks per minute, and more blocks mean more opportunity to process transactions. With blocks arriving every ~2 seconds, Polygon produces approximately 30 blocks per minute, and each block can hold hundreds of transactions.
On Polygon, the average block time during active periods is 2.3 seconds with 48 or more transactions on average per block, resulting in sustained high throughput.
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Peak TPS on Polygon has been observed to exceed 600 transactions per second during high-activity events. This theoretical ceiling is constrained by the gas limit per block rather than the block time itself, meaning future upgrades to block gas limits could further increase throughput without changing the block interval.
For context, Polygon has processed over 6.9 billion total transactions with a cumulative record of 109+ TPS observed on PolygonScan. The network has maintained 99.99% uptime over five years of operation, demonstrating that its high throughput is sustainable rather than occasional.
Developers building high-volume applications — such as gaming, micropayments, or decentralized exchanges — specifically choose Polygon for its ability to handle large transaction volumes at low cost without the bottlenecks experienced on Ethereum mainnet.
