An EVM-compatible blockchain built on NEAR Protocol, Aurora Testnet offers ultra-low fees, fast finality, and ETH-based gas for testing Ethereum dApps.
Aurora Testnet is the EVM-compatible test network on NEAR that uses ETH as the gas token, letting teams deploy and validate Solidity dApps safely before mainnet. It mirrors Aurora Mainnet performance—~1s blocks, ~2s finality, sub-cent fees (typically $0.0001–$0.02), and high throughput (1,000+ TPS)—so developers can test DeFi, NFTs, and cross-chain flows via Aurora/Rainbow bridges without risk. It’s used for contract audits, gas profiling, and load testing under low-congestion conditions with familiar tooling like MetaMask, Hardhat, and Foundry.
Aurora Testnet uniquely combines full Ethereum tooling with NEAR’s fast finality and sharded scalability, delivering near-instant confirmations and ultra-low gas while keeping fees denominated in ETH—unlike many L2 testnets. Compared to Ethereum L1 (~12s blocks and $1+ average gas under load), it offers ~1s block time, ~2s finality, and typical costs below $0.01 with capacity for thousands of TPS, enabling realistic high-throughput simulations. Native bridges to NEAR and Ethereum plus deterministic, low-activity test conditions make cross-chain integration testing and CI automation straightforward.
Aurora Testnet uses ETH as the gas token for transaction fees. You can obtain ETH by bridging from other chains or purchasing using thirdweb Bridge, or through faucets (for testnet).
To bridge ETH to Aurora Testnet, connect your wallet to thirdweb bridge, select your source chain, choose the token you want to bridge, select Aurora Testnet as the destination, enter the amount, and confirm the transaction. The bridge will handle the cross-chain transfer instantly.
To build on Aurora Testnet you can use thirdweb, which provides an easy way to build, monetize and scale your apps, games or agents. You can find detailed guides and documentation on https://portal.thirdweb.com to get started quickly.
To add Aurora Testnet to your wallet, you can connect your wallet and click on [Add to Wallet] button at the top of the page. Alternatively, you can add the network manually using the RPC URL and chain details and add it to your wallet's network settings.
To send ETH on Aurora Testnet, ensure your wallet is connected to the Aurora Testnet network, enter the recipient's address, specify the amount of ETH to send, review the gas fee, and confirm the transaction in your wallet.