After the Rent Cut, Your Old Solana Accounts Are Over-Funded

Solana is reducing account data storage cost by 90% in five stages; since September 11, 2026, the second step is in effect — 5080 lamports per byte instead of 6960. Accounts created at the old price hold excess funds that can be withdrawn without closing via WithdrawNonceAccount, Withdraw and WithdrawExcessLamports instructions.

• Storage cost: 6960 → 5080 lamports per byte, a 27% reduction
• A 165-byte token account holds about 0.00055 SOL excess, rising to about 0.0018 SOL at the end
• Withdrawal is available for nonce, stake, vote and token accounts without closing
• set_lamports_per_byte_to_6960 can restore the old price