eth_getLogs significantly slower on Geth compared to Reth for the same query

[makuartur]

System information

Geth version: 1.17.2-stable-be4dc0c4
CL client & version: e.g. lighthouse v8.1.2-3deab9b
OS & Version: Linux:

Ubuntu 24.04.4 LTS
6.8.0-110-generic #110-Ubuntu SMP PREEMPT_DYNAMIC Thu Mar 19 15:09:20 UTC 2026 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

Expected behaviour

Good afternoon Geth team,

I am observing that the same eth_getLogs request is significantly slower on Geth compared to Reth. In my tests, Geth takes around 5–6.6 seconds, while Reth returns the same query in around 0.76–1.04 seconds.

I understand that different clients may have different internal indexing and log filtering implementations, so I do not necessarily expect identical performance. However, the difference seems quite large, so I would like to understand whether this is expected for Geth or whether there is a known configuration/performance tuning option that could improve this.

Actual behaviour

The same eth_getLogs query is around 5–10x slower on Geth than on Reth.
Results:
Geth node 1

Hardware:

VM with 16 CPU cores
Hypervisor CPU: Intel Xeon Gold 5412U
RAM: 40 GB
SSD: Samsung MZQL27T6HBLA-00A07

DNS: 0.000023
Connect: 0.000137
TTFB: 6.652341
Total: 6.657787

Geth node 2

Hardware:

VM with 16 CPU cores
Hypervisor CPU: AMD EPYC 9454P
RAM: 40 GB
SSD: Micron 7450 MTFDKCC7T6TFR

DNS: 0.000016
Connect: 0.000112
TTFB: 4.996553
Total: 5.003284

Reth node 1

Hardware:

VM with 16 CPU cores
CPU: 13th Gen Intel Core i9-13900
RAM: 40 GB
SSD: Samsung MZQL27T6HBLA-00A07

DNS: 0.000015
Connect: 0.000115
TTFB: 0.760477
Total: 0.761522

Steps to reproduce the behaviour

/opt/geth/geth-alltools-linux-amd64-1.17.2-be4dc0c4/geth --datadir=/mnt/ethereum-geth-mainnet/data --mainnet --discovery.port=30303 --port=30303 --syncmode=full --gcmode=archive --history.state=0 --log.format=terminal --metrics --metrics.addr=127.0.0.1 --metrics.port=6000 --authrpc.addr=127.0.0.1 --authrpc.jwtsecret=/mnt/ethereum-geth-mainnet/jwt.hex --authrpc.port=8551 --authrpc.vhosts=* --http --http.addr=0.0.0.0 --http.api=admin,debug,eth,net,trace,txpool,web3,rpc,geth,ots --http.port=8545 --http.vhosts=* --http.rpcprefix=/ --ws --ws.addr=0.0.0.0 --ws.api=admin,debug,eth,net,trace,txpool,web3,rpc,geth,ots --ws.port=8546 --ws.origins=* --ws.rpcprefix=/ --rpc.telemetry=true --rpc.telemetry.endpoint=http://localhost:4318 --rpc.telemetry.tags=network=mainnet

curl -o /tmp/response.txt -s -X POST http://127.0.0.1:8545 \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "jsonrpc": "2.0",
    "id": 1,
    "method": "eth_getLogs",
    "params": [
      {
        "address": [
          "0xc329400492c6ff2438472d4651ad17389fcb843a",
          "0x33d3b87c957d5cd89b0fb980a29718dcf043b66e",
          "0xb26ff591f44b04e78de18f43b46f8b70c6676984",
          "0x422f5accc812c396600010f224b320a743695f85",
          "0x03bf48b8a1b37fbead1ecabcf15b98b924ffa5ac",
          "0x475d3eb031d250070b63fa145f0fcfc5d97c304a",
          "0x38b86004842d3fa4596f0b7a0b53de90745ab654",
          "0x5198cb44d7b2e993ebdda9cad3b9a0eaa32769d2",
          "0xbdea8e677f9f7c294a4556005c640ee505be6925",
          "0xd0153899e51c5a0fcc98246ba428cc97bd6f50d3",
          "0x948323aa8e5c1743f3d94b26ead4d27ae953c654",
          "0x11655f71a58d17ad216f30a491baef3b48f00fc7",
          "0xceafa7757b8b302dcb0174d48cf6eabb28963b48",
          "0x1c57ea879dd3e8c9fefa8224fdd1fa20dd54211e",
          "0x95c17e3d3950a3ef5bc128ddfbc60f885cefb0dc",
          "0x4999d54320af7b1f88b2829363c0f32ac7bb9928",
          "0xe39b5f5638a209c1a6b6cdffe5d37f7ac99fcc84",
          "0x19d0d8e6294b7a04a2733fe433444704b791939a",
          "0x971e5b5d4baa5607863f3748febf287c7bf82618",
          "0x0c969cec0729487d264716e55f232b404299032c",
          "0xb09a50acfff7d12b7d18adef3d1027bc149bad1c",
          "0x52cb8a621610cc3ccf498a1981a8ae7ad6b8ab2a",
          "0x21dbba985eea6ba7f27534a72ccb292eba1d2c7c",
          "0x940750a267c64f3bbce31b948b67cd168f0843fa",
          "0x9c0823d3a1172f9ddf672d438dec79c39a64f448",
          "0x852463974aee1d6155ce3e3d936e76a101a4af19",
          "0x544f45485418341c1a2b3a44404f12302277fffc",
          "0x594380c06552a4136e2601f89e50b3b9ad17bd4d",
          "0x6460aaa0620f59ce967d80f2a32201bddae72304",
          "0xbb4a2f26447e6ec92ba3a944374783fc2c308c1d",
          "0xa5ef400eac9abae51aadea24759251815e823244",
          "0x7abab3dd7287912f91c74bd8f5e26b0f8c5c7647",
          "0x724ac5e7941788d1d378aeac73db40a96c627802",
          "0xa3501e86d507e2ccc28a10b0448e4e6dc96d7edc",
          "0x950fdf40608800535137c61edf3972c436d680e8"
        ],
        "topics": [
          "0xddf252ad1be2c89b69c2b068fc378daa952ba7f163c4a11628f55a4df523b3ef"
        ],
        "fromBlock": "0x1323992",
        "toBlock": "0x132562c"
      }
    ]
  }' \
  -w "\n\nDNS: %{time_namelookup}\nConnect: %{time_connect}\nTTFB: %{time_starttransfer}\nTotal: %{time_total}\n"

Backtrace

[backtrace]

[s1na]

Please try with --history.logs 0. The default value is 2350000 and you're querying for blocks beyond that range on mainnet. Those logs are not indexed on your geth node. That should explain the slowdown.

[makuartur]

Please try with --history.logs 0. The default value is 2350000 and you're querying for blocks beyond that range on mainnet. Those logs are not indexed on your geth node. That should explain the slowdown.

I set --history.logs=0, restarted Geth, and waited for the index to finish building, but it didn’t help.

geth[475676]: INFO [04-30|13:00:42.090] Log index tail rendering in progress     firstblock=0          "last block"=24,993,083 processed=22,614,526 remaining=1          "next tail epoch percentage"=0  elapsed=5h36m28.432s
geth[475676]: INFO [04-30|13:00:42.090] Log index tail rendering finished        firstblock=0          lastblock=24,993,083 processed=22,614,526 elapsed=5h36m28.432s

geth      475676  424 19.7 12162384 8098344 ?    Ssl  07:24 1708:55 /opt/geth/geth-alltools-linux-amd64-1.17.2-be4dc0c4/geth --datadir=/mnt/ethereum-geth-mainnet/data --mainnet --discovery.port=30303 --port=30303 --syncmode=full --gcmode=archive --history.state=0 --history.logs=0 --log.format=terminal --metrics --metrics.addr=127.0.0.1 --metrics.port=6000 --authrpc.addr=127.0.0.1 --authrpc.jwtsecret=/mnt/ethereum-geth-mainnet/jwt.hex --authrpc.port=8551 --authrpc.vhosts=* --http --http.addr=0.0.0.0 --http.api=admin,debug,eth,net,trace,txpool,web3,rpc,geth,ots --http.port=8545 --http.vhosts=* --http.rpcprefix=/ --ws --ws.addr=0.0.0.0 --ws.api=admin,debug,eth,net,trace,txpool,web3,rpc,geth,ots --ws.port=8546 --ws.origins=* --ws.rpcprefix=/ --rpc.telemetry=true --rpc.telemetry.endpoint=http://localhost:4318 --rpc.telemetry.tags=network=mainnet

curl -o /tmp/response.txt -s -X POST http://127.0.0.1:8545   -H "Content-Type: application/json"   -d '{
    "jsonrpc": "2.0",
    "id": 1,
    "method": "eth_getLogs",
    "params": [
      {
        "address": [
          "0xc329400492c6ff2438472d4651ad17389fcb843a",
          "0x33d3b87c957d5cd89b0fb980a29718dcf043b66e",
          "0xb26ff591f44b04e78de18f43b46f8b70c6676984",
          "0x422f5accc812c396600010f224b320a743695f85",
          "0x03bf48b8a1b37fbead1ecabcf15b98b924ffa5ac",
          "0x475d3eb031d250070b63fa145f0fcfc5d97c304a",
          "0x38b86004842d3fa4596f0b7a0b53de90745ab654",
          "0x5198cb44d7b2e993ebdda9cad3b9a0eaa32769d2",
          "0xbdea8e677f9f7c294a4556005c640ee505be6925",
          "0xd0153899e51c5a0fcc98246ba428cc97bd6f50d3",
          "0x948323aa8e5c1743f3d94b26ead4d27ae953c654",
          "0x11655f71a58d17ad216f30a491baef3b48f00fc7",
          "0xceafa7757b8b302dcb0174d48cf6eabb28963b48",
          "0x1c57ea879dd3e8c9fefa8224fdd1fa20dd54211e",
          "0x95c17e3d3950a3ef5bc128ddfbc60f885cefb0dc",
          "0x4999d54320af7b1f88b2829363c0f32ac7bb9928",
          "0xe39b5f5638a209c1a6b6cdffe5d37f7ac99fcc84",
          "0x19d0d8e6294b7a04a2733fe433444704b791939a",
          "0x971e5b5d4baa5607863f3748febf287c7bf82618",
          "0x0c969cec0729487d264716e55f232b404299032c",
          "0xb09a50acfff7d12b7d18adef3d1027bc149bad1c",
          "0x52cb8a621610cc3ccf498a1981a8ae7ad6b8ab2a",
          "0x21dbba985eea6ba7f27534a72ccb292eba1d2c7c",
          "0x940750a267c64f3bbce31b948b67cd168f0843fa",
          "0x9c0823d3a1172f9ddf672d438dec79c39a64f448",
          "0x852463974aee1d6155ce3e3d936e76a101a4af19",
          "0x544f45485418341c1a2b3a44404f12302277fffc",
          "0x594380c06552a4136e2601f89e50b3b9ad17bd4d",
          "0x6460aaa0620f59ce967d80f2a32201bddae72304",
          "0xbb4a2f26447e6ec92ba3a944374783fc2c308c1d",
          "0xa5ef400eac9abae51aadea24759251815e823244",
          "0x7abab3dd7287912f91c74bd8f5e26b0f8c5c7647",
          "0x724ac5e7941788d1d378aeac73db40a96c627802",
          "0xa3501e86d507e2ccc28a10b0448e4e6dc96d7edc",
          "0x950fdf40608800535137c61edf3972c436d680e8"
  }'   -w "\n\nDNS: %{time_namelookup}\nConnect: %{time_connect}\nTTFB: %{time_starttransfer}\nTotal: %{time_total}\n"


DNS: 0.000029
Connect: 0.000125
TTFB: 7.856222
Total: 7.860930

[s1na]

@zsfelfoldi please take a look

[makuartur]

@s1na @zsfelfoldi
Good afternoon, could you please let me know if there are any updates or recommendations?