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What is a pruned node?
A pruned node is a Bitcoin full node that checks every block like any other but deletes old block data once it has been processed. It keeps only recent blocks plus the database of unspent coins, so it needs a small fraction of the disk space of a node that keeps everything.
What it means for you
A pruned node verifies your payments by the same rules as an unpruned one, but it cannot serve old blocks to other nodes and cannot rescan blocks it has deleted, which matters if you import or restore an older wallet on it.
How it works
Bitcoin Core added pruning in version 0.11 through the -prune=N option, where N is the megabytes allotted to raw block and undo data. The minimum is 550 MB, enough to keep at least 288 blocks, about two days' worth. Raw blocks are deleted after they have been validated and used to build the databases; the block index and the set of unspent outputs stay. The node remains fully validating, but pruning is incompatible with -txindex and with wallet rescans, and the node does not relay old blocks to peers.
Sources: Bitcoin Core 0.11.0 release notes (block file pruning), Running a full node (bitcoin.org) · checked 4 October 2026
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