The Sepolia testnet is a new test net of the Ethereum blockchain and replaced the Ropsten test net which is now deprecated. The Sepolia testnet relies on the proof-of-stake consensus mechanism since it successfully merged with the proof-of-stake beacon chain on July 6th 2022.
It is highly recommended to test smart contracts on Sepolia Testnet or another Testnet before deploying them to the main net.
Oh one more thing, ETH is called SEP on Sepolia.
Sepolia Quick Facts
Network Name: Sepolia Test Network
RPC URL: https://rpc.sepolia.dev
alternative RPC URL: https://rpc.sepolia.online
alternative RPC URL: https://www.sepoliarpc.space
alternative RPC URL: https://rpc.sepolia.org
alternative RPC URL: https://rpc-sepolia.rockx.com
Network/Chain ID: 11155111
Symbol: SEP
Block Explorer URL: https://sepolia.etherscan.io/
Consensus Mechanism: Proof of Stake
EVM Version: London
Genesis hash: 0x25a5cc106eea7138acab33231d7160d69cb777ee0c2c553fcddf5138993e6dd9
Faucets: https://sepoliafaucet.net/
https://faucet.sepolia.dev/
https://sepolia-faucet.pk910.de/
https://faucet-sepolia.rockx.com/
Merger Date: 6th of July 2022
In this tutorial, we will show you:
- how to connect MetaMask to Sepolia
- how to find the network settings for Sepolia Testnet
- how to get free test Ether from the Sepolia Faucet
- how to deploy a Solidity smart contract to the Sepolia Testnet
- how to use the block explorer for Sepolia Testnet
Add Sepolia Testnet to MetaMask
MetaMask has by default the Ropsten, Kovan, Rinkeby, and Goerli test nets already configured. To use the Sepolia testnet we have to configure our MetaMask wallet for it by adding the Sepolia Testnet details and pointing it towards a Sepolia node.
To do so we click on the account icon in the top right corner of MetaMask and then select settings.
In the settings menu, we select the Networks to go to the network settings and to see an overview of all configured networks in MetaMask.
If we already see the Sepolia Testnet under Networks then MetaMask is already configured for it. Otherwise, we have to add it by click the blue Add Network button.
Network settings for Sepolia
To add Sepolia Testnet to our MetaMask wallet we have to enter the Sepolia Testnet details. This will connect our MetaMask wallet to the RPC endpoint of a node in the Sepolia Testnet. Just copy the settings below into MetaMask and click Save. Then the Sepolia Network will show up and can be selected in the dropdown menu.
Network settings for Sepolia Testnet
Find all network setting for the Sepolia Testnet in the following table:
| parameter |
value |
| Network Name |
Sepolia Test Network |
| New RPC URL |
https://rpc.sepolia.dev |
| Chain ID |
11155111 |
| Symbol |
SEP |
| Block Explorer URL |
https://sepolia.etherscan.io/ |
Please make sure to copy the URLs without whitespace, otherwise, an error will be shown.
Alternative RPC URLs:
https://rpc.sepolia.online
https://www.sepoliarpc.space
https://rpc.sepolia.org
https://rpc-sepolia.rockx.com
Sepolia Faucet: Get test funds
The next step is to get some test funds to our MetaMask wallet. We will need them later to pay for the deployment fees of our Solidity contract. The currency in Sepolia is SEP instead of ETH and it is only valued on the testnet. We can get test funds from a faucet website that dispenses 0.05 SEP per user.
All we have to do is to use the
Sepolia Faucet, copy our address from MetaMask, and paste it into the faucet website. Then solve the captcha and click Request funds after a few seconds the website will show that the transaction has been completed. Please be patient it make take a while.
Time to go to our MetaMask wallet and check if the funds really arrived. It's also possible to check transactions on the
Sepolia Testnet Blockexplorer. While the block explorer for the testnet might look the same as for the mainnet they are different, make sure you're using the correct block explorer otherwise the transactions won't show up.
In case the Faucet is not working, here are some alternative Faucets:
https://faucet.sepolia.dev/
https://sepolia-faucet.pk910.de/
https://faucet-sepolia.rockx.com/
Deploy contract to Sepolia
We have
set up MetaMask and
acquired test funds from the Sepolia faucet. Now it's finally time to deploy our smart contract written in Solidity to the Sepolia Testnet. We will use Remix in this tutorial because it is the most beginner-friendly IDE.
In remix, we go to the Deploy & Run tab, which can be chosen on the left side. There we select Injected Web3 under Environment. If it is the first time, MetaMask will open to confirm the Connection between MetaMask and remix.
After confirming the connection our MetaMask wallet is connected to the remix IDE. Now we can click Deploy in remix (the orange or red button depending on if the contract is payable or not). Then MetaMask will open another window asking for confirmation of the transaction. It will also show an estimate of the gas fees that we have to pay to deploy the contract. MetaMask will also show an estimate of how long it will take to complete the transaction. In our case, we're deploying to a testnet so the transaction is completed almost instantly (very likely within 15 seconds). We can confirm the transaction and the contract will be deployed.
In case the deployment takes too much time, we can even speed it up by clicking the blue Speed Up button.
After the transaction has been completed we will receive a notification from MetaMask. We can then see the deployed contract in Remix under Deployed contracts and can test it as we would test on the local environment.
For this tutorial we have deployed a hello world contract, so the only functionality is to echo hello world. However, deploying first to the Sepolia test net is crucial to make sure that your contract works as expected before deploying it to the Mainnet. If you're a beginner in Solidity make sure to check our
Solidity Tutorial 2022.
Block explorer for Sepolia
With the deprecation of the Ropsten Testnet, the Sepolia Testnet is now the recommended testing ground for Solidity contracts before they are deployed to the Ethereum blockchain. To check transactions and smart contracts we can use the
block explorer for the Sepolia testnet. It works the same way as the mainnet block explorer, however, transactions in the main net won't show up here and vice-versa.
The Sepolia Testnet Explorer shows the latest blocks and latest transactions in the Sepolia testnet, you can reach it under the Etherscan subdomain
sepolia.etherscan.io. An alternative block explorer for Sepolia is provided by Otterscan under the subdomain
sepolia.otterscan.io.
Learn also how to deploy smart contracts to alternative chains: