Comprehensive Guide
Learn more in our Investing Guide.
How it works
A mining profitability calculator turns a rig's gross revenue and running costs into a profit figure you can actually plan around. Mining economics reduce to one subtraction performed daily: the coins your hashrate earns, minus the pool's cut, minus the electricity the machines burn. Power dominates that subtraction — a 3,000-watt rig running around the clock consumes 72 kilowatt-hours a day, so at ten cents per kilowatt-hour electricity alone claims $7.20 before anything else. Enter your gross daily revenue, which pool estimators publish for any hashrate, along with wattage, your tariff, the pool fee and hardware cost; the calculator returns daily, monthly and yearly profit, the margin surviving after power and fees, the electricity rate at which profit touches zero, and how many months of operating profit repay the machines. Two structural facts outrank any snapshot. Revenue decays: network difficulty climbs as more hashpower joins, and scheduled issuance cuts step revenue down overnight, so a profitable rig is a melting ice cube whose slope matters as much as its level. And hardware depreciates faster than it pays back when newer generations ship — the resale value at month eighteen, not the invoice price, is the honest denominator for whether the venture earned anything at all.Formula
profit/day = revenue - pool fee - (watts / 1000) x 24 x $/kWh | payback = hardware / monthly profit
Tips
- Get the revenue figure from a current pool estimator for your exact hashrate — guesses age badly within weeks.
- Compute the break-even tariff and compare it honestly with your all-in rate, including delivery charges and tiered pricing.
- Model revenue decay: rerun the numbers at half of today's revenue to see whether the rig still clears its power bill.
- Count heat, noise and cooling — in warm climates air conditioning claws back a real slice of margin.
- Mined coins are usually taxable as income on receipt; set aside a slice daily rather than reconciling in April.
Frequently asked questions
Is crypto mining still profitable?
It depends almost entirely on three numbers: your electricity rate, your hardware efficiency, and the coin's network difficulty. Cheap power and current-generation machines can clear healthy margins; residential tariffs on older rigs usually cannot. Run your exact inputs rather than trusting fleet averages.
How is mining profitability calculated?
Gross daily revenue for your hashrate, minus the pool's percentage fee, minus the electricity cost of running the rig — watts divided by 1,000, times 24 hours, times your rate per kilowatt-hour. What remains is daily profit; multiply by 30 and 365 for monthly and yearly views.
What is mining break-even electricity price?
The rate per kilowatt-hour at which revenue minus pool fees exactly covers power, leaving zero profit. Above it you lose money on every kilowatt-hour mined. Our example setup breaks even near $0.19/kWh — anything cheaper leaves margin, anything dearer guarantees losses.
How long does mining hardware take to pay back?
Hardware cost divided by monthly operating profit, at current economics. The example rig repays $3,500 in roughly 18 months — but rising difficulty shrinks future profit, so the true payback runs longer than the snapshot suggests. Depreciation against newer models extends it further.
What costs besides electricity does mining have?
Cooling and ventilation, noise mitigation, space, spare parts and downtime, internet reliability, pool fees, and taxes — mined coins are typically taxed as income at receipt. Hardware depreciation against fast-moving generations is often the largest hidden cost of all.