Bringing Subgraph Studio Traffic to The Graph Network
In August 2026, The Graph Foundation outlined a that shifts their core responsibilities from coordinator to operator and becoming a more active participant in the network’s protocol and economics. A month in, the Foundation has already made strides on improving the economic efficiencies promised in that post, with the , and live and in their early stages of optimization. But there is still more work to do!
From Subgraph Studio to The Graph Network
Over the past month, The Graph Foundation took direct ownership of core ecosystem infrastructure, and is now running The Graph protocol and its dependent components including a Subgraph Gateway, Subgraph Studio, and Graph Explorer. routes queries made by data consumers to Indexers on The Graph Network. Subgraph Studio, on the other hand, is a user interface where developers manage and pay for Subgraph services while also benefitting from a staging environment before publishing Subgraphs to the network.
What’s important to point out here is that The Graph has historically provided blockchain data through two almost competing Subgraph services: Subgraph Studio and The Graph Network. While Studio’s centralized staging environment provides some developer benefits, it also tends to bottleneck traffic that would be better fit to scale on the network. This is because The Graph Network is a geographically distributed set of Indexers that specialize full-time in indexing and serving blockchain data. For too long, the Studio staging environment has been a crutch – first as the hosted service and now on the . The Graph Foundation believes that all query volume belongs on The Graph Network, where Indexers serve it and the network benefits from the query fees it brings.
Moving the Subgraph Studio’s traffic to The Graph Network will be a staged process, starting with BNB Smart Chain and Polygon. Subgraphs on other chains are likely to transition to the Network soon after, especially those already supported by protocol issuance. The Foundation’s initial goal, however, emphasizes continuity with no service disruptions for Subgraph users on BNB Smart Chain and Polygon. As a result, Subgraph users will be notified of the upcoming migration, which is set to take place on October 8, 2026.
Importantly, Subgraph Studio is not disappearing completely. Studio will continue as the home for managing and publishing Subgraphs, payments, and API keys. Moreover, as highlighted in recent calls, the Foundation presented several more changes coming as well, including the addition of multiple new services and a new and improved developer experience. An announcement will follow when more information is available.
Implications for Subgraph Developers
If a developer’s BNB Smart Chain and Polygon Subgraphs are already published and queried on The Graph Network, nothing changes for those users. Those Subgraphs stay live and continue to serve queries. Developers will lose the capacity to query via the Studio staging environment for these networks on October 8, 2026, but can continue to manage Subgraph versions in Studio as well as publish new Subgraphs and versions to the network through .
If a developer’s BNB Smart Chain and Polygon Subgraphs are currently deployed only to Subgraph Studio’s staging environment, they will need to publish them to The Graph Network so Indexers can begin syncing them. To help bootstrap this process, The Graph Foundation will curate for developers via an automated bot that detects published Subgraphs on BNB Smart Chain and Polygon. Developers should publish their Studio Subgraphs before October 8, 2026, so the handoff completes with no gap in service.
The step-by-step guide is available here in the .
Why This Matters
Indexing on The Graph Network means Subgraphs are served by a decentralized set of Indexers rather than a centralized environment. That brings redundancy across Indexers, stronger quality of service, and the durability of a decentralized protocol.
Left in place, the staging environment keeps traffic in a centralized component that competes with The Graph Network for ecosystem resources. Bringing that traffic to the network ends the duplication and accelerates network growth.
This is the first phase. More networks follow as the move continues, with the same goal each time: more query traffic directed to The Graph Network, served by Indexers.
Questions during the transition? Reach the team on Discord in the #subgraph-development channel, contact the team directly in your dedicated Telegram channel, or email the team at .
Frequently Asked Questions
Will my service break?
For Subgraphs already on The Graph Network, developers will see no change, other than the loss of the staging environment that Subgraph Studio provided for these networks.
For those using Subgraphs through the Subgraph Studio staging environment, Subgraph on BNB Smart Chain and Polygon will be deprecated on October 8, 2026. Developers need to to The Graph Network, set up billing and an API key in Subgraph Studio, and move their Studio endpoints to Gateway endpoints before then to ensure continuity. The Graph Foundation will curate on your behalf using an automated curation bot to track published events.
Why is this change happening now?
The Graph Foundation took on a new mandate roughly one month ago: shifting from coordinator to operator, and with it, responsibility for Subgraph Studio. On review of the staging environment, the Foundation determined that bringing that traffic onto The Graph Network fit both its broader mission and the original goal of The Graph ecosystem.
Does this affect query volume?
This move brings more usage to The Graph Network and routes more indexing and query traffic through the protocol. GRT is the work utility token of The Graph Network, so more usage means more work runs through the protocol, including the query fees it processes.
Is The Graph centralizing?
No, quite the opposite. Moving the Subgraph Studio staging environment, which is a centralized indexing component, and shifting those Subgraphs to The Graph Network increases decentralization. It puts more of the indexing load, and query volume, on the decentralized network.
To help facilitate this process and change, the Foundation will use the curation mechanism more actively and coordinate more directly with Indexers. Doing so places more responsibility on the Foundation to operate the network by using curation, rather than relying on free-market dynamics alone. The Foundation will work Indexers to ensure this is done in a collaborative way.
Are you abandoning the hosted service?
The hosted service was formally deprecated about , when that traffic moved to The Graph Network. However, the Subgraph Studio staging environment still carries the hosted service's legacy. It runs on a centralized that performs a hosted-service function and centralizes traffic that could run on The Graph Network. The Foundation does not intend to maintain that hosted-service function long-term.
The Foundation is bringing the last of the hosted service's legacy traffic onto The Graph Network, so Indexers benefit and consumers get redundancy, in line with the core vision of The Graph protocol.
Are Indexers ready for the added load?
The Foundation is coordinating directly with Indexers in Graph Office Hours and the #indexers channel on Discord. While a subset of Indexers are more active than others during the ongoing coordination, the Foundation plans to use curation as an on-chain mechanism to incentivize Indexers to respond to Subgraphs that need indexing.
As requested by Indexers, the Foundation will also publish a full list of the Subgraphs that are already published and will be curated on, along with the newly published Subgraphs that it will curate on more directly and coordinate with Indexers to get appropriate coverage.
Consumers still need to be proactive: publish your Subgraphs where needed, and update your endpoints, to minimize service disruptions.
About The Graph
The Graph is a suite of blockchain data infrastructure products that extract, process, and deliver scalable blockchain data solutions across 60+ networks. The Graph enables application developers, data analysts, AI agents, and enterprise teams that need structured, real-time access to blockchain data. Products include Subgraphs, Firehose, Substreams, and Amp. As of early 2026, The Graph has served over 1.27 trillion queries to more than 75,000 projects, powered by a network of independent Indexers around the world.
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