How to create an EOS account (free and paid options)

6 min read

Why EOS needs an account in the first place

On Bitcoin or Ethereum, a wallet generates a key pair and the address is derived from it. Nothing happens on-chain until someone sends you coins. EOS works differently. An account is an on-chain object with a human-readable name, and it has to be created by an existing account with the newaccount action.

The account also takes up space in the chain’s memory, its RAM. Storing your name, keys and permissions costs about 2,996 bytes, so whoever creates the account has to buy that RAM. That is the reason "create EOS account" is a real step on this network and not just "install a wallet".

In return you get features other chains bolt on with extra contracts: readable names, separate owner and active keys, built-in multisig and custom permissions. We will go through each one below.

Three ways to create an EOS account

Unicove’s sign-up page lists Anchor (mobile and desktop) and MetaMask (through a Unicove snap) as wallets that can create Vaulta accounts directly. imToken, TokenPocket and Scatter are listed as wallets you can use once you have an account. Our EOS wallet comparison covers each of them.

Create a free EOS account with Anchor: step by step

1. Choose a wallet

   Go to anchorwallet.io. The browser app at vaulta.anchorwallet.io needs no installation and uses a passkey stored on your device. The mobile and desktop apps work just as well.

2. Pick an account name

   Think of something you are happy to share, like a username. Follow the naming rules below or the creation will fail.

3. Verify with Google or Apple

   Anchor asks you to sign in with Google or Apple. This is an anti-sybil check: the network sponsors your account’s resources, so it needs a way to stop one person from claiming thousands.

4. Confirm creation

   Your keys are generated on your device. The account is created on-chain, and with roughly one-second finality on Vaulta you can use it almost immediately.

5. Back up the owner key

   Export the owner key and store it offline. This key can reset everything else, so treat it like the deed to a house.

6. Check the account on an explorer

   Search your name on Unicove or EOS Authority. You should see the account, its keys and its RAM. Our EOS explorer guide shows what each field means.

The full wallet walkthrough, including Ledger and dApp logins, is in our Anchor Wallet setup guide. If you are mainly here for games, the Wombat Wallet review explains its free account flow.

EOS account name rules

Getting the name right matters because it can never be changed. The rules are strict:

• Length: exactly 12 characters for a standard name. Shorter names exist only as premium names or under a suffix.
• Characters: lowercase a–z, digits 1–5 and the dot . only.
• No 0, 6, 7, 8 or 9 and no uppercase letters, dashes or underscores.
• Cannot start with a digit or a dot, and cannot end with a dot.

Premium and suffix names

Names shorter than 12 characters are premium names. Top-level ones are sold in an on-chain auction using the bidname action, and the proceeds flow into the REX staking pool. A suffix such as .bar belongs to a single account, and only that account can create sub-names like foo.bar. That is how projects issue branded accounts to their users.

What it costs when you pay yourself

If you skip the free options, for example to avoid linking a Google or Apple account or to create a Ledger-secured account, you pay for the account’s RAM plus a small amount of CPU and NET.

• RAM: about 3 KB. Using a RAM price of roughly 0.35 A per KB from recent on-chain data, plus the 0.5% RAM fee, that is around 1 A. Wallets often buy 3–4 KB to leave a little room.
• CPU and NET: rented for 24 hours through PowerUp. For a single account creation this is a fraction of a cent.

RAM is not a fee; it is something the account owns and can sell back later. The price moves with supply and demand on an on-chain market, so treat the 1 A figure as a guide. You can plug in live numbers with the calculator on our EOS RAM, CPU and NET page.

Developers and onboarding services can also use giftram, a system feature added in 2025, to lend RAM to new users so they can start without paying anything up front.

Owner key, active key and permissions explained

Every EOS account has two mandatory permissions:

• owner: the top level. It can change any permission, including itself. Use it only for recovery and keep it offline.
• active: the everyday key for transfers, staking, voting and dApp actions.

Below active you can add custom permissions and link them to specific contract actions. For example, you could create a vote permission that can only call the voting action, then give that key to a script without ever risking your tokens.

Built-in multisig

Each permission has a threshold, and each key or account inside it has a weight. Set a threshold of 2 with three keys weighted 1 each, and any two of three can sign. Families, DAOs and businesses use this to avoid a single point of failure. The network itself uses the same system: the special account eosio.prods requires 15 of the 21 block producers to approve protocol changes, as explained in our DPoS guide.

Key format

Modern public keys start with PUB_K1_. The legacy EOS… prefix is still accepted, so older backups keep working after the Vaulta rebrand.

Creating an account with a Ledger

If you want your account’s keys to live on a hardware wallet from day one, use Anchor Desktop with the Ledger EOS app. Greymass has a support article that walks through creating an account with a Ledger: you generate the key on the device, then pay for or sponsor the account creation. The Anchor mobile app has historically not supported Ledger, so do this on a computer.

Common mistakes to avoid

• Sharing a key instead of a name. To receive tokens, share only the 12-character account name.
• Losing the owner key. Without it, nobody can restore your account. There is no "forgot password" on-chain.
• Paying a third-party site for a "premium" account. Use reputable wallets. Random account-creation sites are a common phishing vector.
• Expecting old EOS to show as A. Your account may still hold legacy EOS; convert it with our EOS to A swap guide.

What to do after your account is live

Frequently asked questions

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