Solana Explained
November 2026: Solana Finishes the Job, Rent Drops to 696 Lamports
Agave 4.4 is rolling out the last three steps of SIMD-0437 this November, taking the rent constant all the way down to 696 lamports per byte. That's the full 90% cut, finally live. Here's what it means for the SOL parked in your accounts.
We've been tracking this rollout since step one hit mainnet in September, and November is where it actually finishes. Steps 3, 4, and 5 of SIMD-0437 ship together with Agave 4.4, moving the rent constant from its mid-rollout value down to 696 lamports per byte. That's the number Anza engineer Igor Durovic proposed back when this whole thing started, and it's finally the number that goes live.
Quick recap, because the timeline matters
Step 1 landed at epoch 1028 in early September, cutting the constant from 6,960 to 6,333. Step 2 followed shortly after, bringing it to 5,080 and unlocking an estimated 612,000 SOL in reclaimable surplus across existing accounts. Those two steps alone already added up to a 27% reduction. November closes the gap between that midpoint and the full target.
Why three steps at once this time
Core developers spaced out the first two steps to watch state growth carefully, since cheaper storage can encourage more accounts to be created. By the time Agave 4.4 ships, the data from steps 1 and 2 gave the team enough confidence to bundle the remaining cuts into a single client release instead of spreading them across separate epochs. The fallback gate is still there: if something unexpected happens with state growth, the constant can be reset. But at this point, the rollout has held up.
Practically, this means every account that was created under the old 6,960 lamport-per-byte rule, or even under the partial cuts from September, is now sitting on a bigger gap between what it deposited and what's actually required. That gap doesn't disappear. It becomes withdrawable.
The number that should get your attention
Across the full five-step rollout, industry estimates put the total reclaimable surplus above 3 million SOL. Step 2 alone accounted for roughly 612,000 SOL, and November's jump from a partial cut to the full 90% reduction is the biggest single move in the entire schedule. If your wallet has been holding token accounts, staking accounts, or any program-owned account opened before this rollout started, there is a very real chance part of that deposit is now excess.
This isn't a reward, an airdrop, or new emissions. It's SOL you already deposited, sitting there because the network used to require more of it. Solana's WithdrawExcessLamports instruction lets you pull that difference out without closing the account or touching your tokens.
Why November specifically is the right moment
Earlier in the rollout, checking your excess balance only told part of the story, because the cut wasn't finished. Now that Agave 4.4 pushes the constant to its final 696 lamports per byte, the gap between what your accounts deposited under the old rules and what's required today is as large as it's going to get under this proposal. There's no reason to keep waiting for a later phase, because this is the later phase.
How to actually check your wallet
You don't need to read raw account data or calculate rent exemption thresholds by hand. Claim Your SOLs scans your wallet, compares each account's current balance against the live on-chain minimum, and shows you exactly how much is reclaimable, account by account. No token closures, no staking withdrawals, no risk to your holdings. Just the surplus that Solana itself says you're free to take back.
Bottom line
November 2026 is when this proposal stops being partial. Agave 4.4 finishes the rollout, the rent constant hits 696 lamports per byte, and millions of SOL that were locked under an outdated deposit rule become claimable across the network. If you haven't checked your wallet since the earlier steps, this is the point where it's worth doing.
Check your wallet at claimyoursols.app 👀
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