---
title: About The Graph
description: This page summarizes the core concepts and basics of The Graph Network.
---

## What is 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, reliable, and real-time access to blockchain data. Products include Subgraphs, Substreams, and Amp. As of early 2026, The Graph has served over 1.27 trillion queries to more than 75,000 projects, powered by 50+ independent Indexer nodes worldwide.

To learn more about The Graph from a non-technical perspective, visit [The Graph Overview](https://thegraph.com/what-is-the-graph/).

## Why Blockchain Data is Difficult to Index

Blockchains are optimized for writing and verifying transactions, not for reading or analyzing them. This makes indexing on-chain data harder than it looks:

- **No relational structure:** Data is stored as an append-only chain of blocks with no tables, indices, or relationships. Answering "all transfers for this user" means scanning the chain block by block, which is slow and resource intensive.
- **State isn't readable in useful forms:** Contract data lives in low-level storage slots and event logs, which must be reconstructed into meaningful application-readable format.
- **No query language:** Blockchains expose only low-level RPC methods (`eth_getLogs`, `eth_call`), with no native way to filter, aggregate, sort, or join.
- **Historical data needs archive nodes:** Querying past state requires expensive archive nodes, since most nodes prune historical data.
- **Data is fragmented:** Real applications scatter data across many contracts and events that were never designed to be joined together.

Doing this processing on demand is slow, and it forces every developer to build and maintain their own indexing infrastructure.

## How The Graph Solves This

The Graph is a modular protocol whose data services each specialize in a different class of blockchain data problem. Rather than forcing every use case through a single tool, the protocol lets developers choose the right product or service for their use case:

- **Specialized data services for specific use cases:** The protocol supports a spectrum of data services, each optimized for a distinct need. A team can use one service for custom application APIs, another for high-throughput streaming, and another for compliance-grade analytics, all secured by the same network.
- **Subgraphs for resilient, decentralized APIs:** Subgraphs define exactly which contracts, events, and entities to index and how to transform raw on-chain data into structured entities queryable via GraphQL. Because a global network of Indexers serves this data, Subgraphs offer resilience and geographic diversification, with no single point of failure.
- **Substreams for real-time scale:** Substreams use parallelized, streaming data processing to index at high throughput and deliver onchain data with low latency. This scales indexing far beyond sequential processing and powers real-time use cases such as live liquidity and trading data.
- **Amp for verifiability and auditability:** Amp provides verifiable, enterprise-grade access to on-chain data with built-in audit trails, meeting the auditability and compliance requirements of regulated institutions.

The result: raw, hard-to-access on-chain data becomes fast, structured, and ready to power applications—from a single dapp to institutional-scale systems.

## The Graph's Core Products

### 1. [Subgraphs](/subgraphs/overview/)

**Overview:** Custom APIs that extract data from a blockchain, process it, and serve it via GraphQL. The original and most widely used data service on The Graph.

**Use Cases:** Best when an application needs its own structured, queryable data (specific contracts, events, entities) via an opinionated API. Ideal for DeFi dashboards, NFT marketplaces, governance UIs, and most dapp frontends.

- [Explore existing Subgraphs](https://thegraph.com/explorer)
- [Build a Subgraph](/subgraphs/quick-start)

### 2. [Substreams](/substreams/overview/)

**Overview:** A parallel blockchain indexing technology for high-performance, real-time data streams. Built for use cases that need faster sync and larger throughput than traditional Subgraphs.

**Use Case:** Best when you need low-latency data at scale: live liquidity and price feeds, trading and liquidation events, analytics pipelines, and large-scale backfills across chains.

- [Browse existing Substreams](https://substreams.dev/)
- [Build with Substreams](/substreams/overview/)

### 3. [Amp](https://ampup.sh/docs)

**Overview:** A blockchain-native database designed to transform onchain activity into enterprise-ready datasets with built-in compliance, auditability, and verifiability.

**Use Case:** Best for regulated and institutional use cases needing SQL access and built-in audit trails: enterprise analytics, financial reporting, and workflows with regulatory requirements.

- [Contact Team](https://www.edgeandnode.com/)
- [Get Started with Amp](https://ampup.sh/docs)
