TheGraph

type:

mainnet

chain id:

arbitrum-one

installation guide
delegation
monitoring
security hardening
tooling
skill

The Graph — Delegating GRT

How to delegate GRT to an Indexer on The Graph Network, what the numbers mean, and what changed under Graph Horizon.

The protocol runs on Arbitrum One. GRT and gas must be on Arbitrum One, not Ethereum mainnet. Bridge first if your GRT is on L1.

POSTHUMAN Indexer

Field	Value
Indexer address	`0x0874e792462406dc12EE96b75E52A3BdbBA3a123`
Query endpoint	`https://index.web34ever.com/`
Indexing reward cut	35% indexer / 65% delegators
Query fee cut	85% indexer / 15% delegators
Profile	Graph Explorer

Delegate directly: https://thegraph.com/explorer/delegate?chain=arbitrum-one

Prerequisites

A wallet (MetaMask or any EVM wallet) connected to Arbitrum One.
GRT on Arbitrum One.
A small amount of ETH on Arbitrum One for gas.

How to delegate

Open https://thegraph.com/explorer/delegate?chain=arbitrum-one and connect your wallet. Confirm the network selector shows Arbitrum One.
Pick an Indexer. Under Graph Horizon you also pick a data service — currently SubgraphService, the data service for subgraph indexing. The official UI only supports SubgraphService today.
Enter the amount, approve the GRT spend, then confirm the delegate transaction. Two transactions on a first delegation: approve, then delegate.
Verify on the Indexer's profile page that your delegation appears under the Delegators list, and that your own profile shows the position.

Undelegating

Open your profile, select the delegation, and submit Undelegate.
Wait out the 28-day thawing period. During that window the tokens earn no rewards and cannot be moved.
After 28 days, submit Withdraw to return GRT to your wallet. The withdrawal is a separate transaction; tokens do not arrive automatically.

Horizon allows multiple undelegation requests in flight at once. The Graph's own docs quote two different caps for this (100 in the Horizon change notes, 1,000 in the delegator docs) — treat it as "many, not one" and check the UI for the current limit rather than relying on either number.

What changed under Graph Horizon

Topic	Before	Under Horizon
Delegation target	Indexer only	Indexer and data service (`SubgraphService`)
Delegation tax	0.5% burned on delegate	Removed entirely
Undelegation requests	One at a time	Many simultaneously
Slashing of delegation	Not possible	Technically possible, not enabled; indexer stake is slashed first
Reward cuts	Global staking parameters	Set per data service
Existing delegations	—	Auto-migrated to `SubgraphService`, no action needed

The 28-day thawing period and the reward formula did not change.

Choosing an Indexer

Four numbers decide your yield. Read them before delegating, not after.

1. Indexing reward cut

The share the Indexer keeps. Cut 100% means delegators receive nothing. A profile showing 1,000,000 in raw subgraph data is 100%, not a large number of tokens — the field is parts-per-million.

2. Query fee cut

Same idea, applied to query fee rebates.

3. Delegation capacity

The network delegation ratio is 16: an Indexer can put at most 16 × self-stake of delegated GRT to work.


capacity     = self_stake × 16
head_room    = capacity − currently_delegated

Delegating past capacity dilutes rewards for every delegator on that Indexer, including the ones who were there first. Check head room first.

Worked example, POSTHUMAN BrightWave, verified 2026-09-17 at epoch 1383:


self-stake   328,485 GRT
capacity     328,485 × 16 = 5,255,766 GRT
delegated      990,213 GRT
head room    ~4,265,553 GRT

4. Whether the Indexer actually allocates

An Indexer that does not allocate its stake earns no indexing rewards, so its delegators earn no indexing rewards either. On the profile, compare allocatedTokens against stakedTokens + delegatedTokens.

Dead profiles are the most common delegator mistake. A retired Indexer can keep an Explorer page, keep showing delegated GRT, and pay nothing — zero stake, zero allocations, 100% cut. Two such profiles exist in POSTHUMAN's own history; both still hold stranded delegation. Before delegating, confirm the profile has non-zero self-stake and non-zero allocated tokens.

Verifying the numbers yourself

Every value above comes from the network subgraph rather than from any dashboard's presentation of it:


{
  indexer(id: "0x0874e792462406dc12ee96b75e52a3bdbba3a123") {
    stakedTokens
    delegatedTokens
    allocatedTokens
    indexingRewardCut
    queryFeeCut
    url
  }
}

Addresses must be lowercase. Amounts are in wei-scale GRT (18 decimals); cuts are parts-per-million (350000 = 35%).

Risks

28-day exit. Undelegation is not instant and earns nothing while thawing. Choose an Indexer you are willing to stay with.
Over-delegation. Delegating beyond capacity dilutes everyone's yield.
Cut changes. An Indexer can raise its cut later. Re-check periodically.
Future slashability. Horizon adds the technical capability for delegated stake to be slashed. It is not enabled for SubgraphService today, and indexer stake would be slashed first, but watch governance proposals.
Gas. Delegating, undelegating and withdrawing are each on-chain transactions on Arbitrum One.

Useful tools

Tool	Use
Graph Explorer	Official profiles, delegation UI, ROI estimate
GraphSeer	Indexer and deployment analytics
graphtools.pro	Delegator activity log, refreshed every 8h
Indexer Tools	Allocation and subgraph dashboards

A wider review of the ecosystem tooling is on the Tooling tab.

Installation guide
Monitoring
Security hardening
Official docs: https://thegraph.com/docs/en/resources/roles/delegating/delegating/
Graph Horizon: https://thegraph.com/docs/en/graph-horizon/overview/