Minimal Storage Mode

Minimal storage mode is Reth's smallest built-in node profile. It uses the default storage V2 layout with the most aggressive built-in pruning settings and smaller static file segments.

Use --minimal when disk usage matters more than serving old historical RPC data.

Size

Measured on disk at block 24,396,823 on Ethereum mainnet, minimal mode with storage V2 used 224 GB, compared to 449 GB with legacy V1 storage.

The latest snapshot download size is compressed and changes as new snapshots are published. Check snapshots.reth.rs or run reth download --list for the current compressed size.

Run a minimal node

reth node \
    --minimal \
    --authrpc.jwtsecret /path/to/secret \
    --authrpc.addr 127.0.0.1 \
    --authrpc.port 8551

Retention profile

Data segment	Minimal mode behavior
Sender recovery	Fully pruned
Transaction lookup	Fully pruned
Receipts	Retains the last 64 blocks
Account history	Retains the last 10,064 blocks
Storage history	Retains the last 10,064 blocks
Block bodies	Retains the last 10,064 blocks
Static files	Uses 10,000 blocks per file segment

Trade-offs

Minimal mode is suitable for nodes that need to follow the chain, serve recent state, and keep disk usage low. It is not suitable for workloads that require older transaction lookup, receipts, logs, traces, or historical state.

For more detail on which RPC methods are affected by pruning, see Pruning & Node Modes.

Snapshots

To start from a snapshot with the minimal component set:

reth download --chain mainnet --minimal
 
reth node \
    --authrpc.jwtsecret /path/to/secret