Solana Cuts Mainnet Slot Times to 350ms in First Step Towards 200ms Goal
Solana has activated an update to reduce its slot times from 400 ms to 350 ms on mainnet, as part of a staged reduction plan. The change will take effect at epoch 1020 on August 21, 2026. This is the first step towards achieving Solana's ultimate goal of reducing slot times to 200 ms.
The testnet has already reached slot times of 182 ms, with an average of 193 ms over the last hour. This validates the plan and suggests that mainnet could potentially reach 200 ms by epoch 1026, around September 1, 2026. However, Solana validators have agreed not to advance to the next reduction if the network's skip rate exceeds certain thresholds.
The combination of reduced slot times and increased block limit will quadruple Solana's network throughput in the short term, according to Mert Mumtaz, CEO of Helius. This is part of a larger upgrade plan that includes Alpenglow, which promises to redesign the protocol's consensus mechanism and reduce transaction finality to 150 ms.