Mining Profitability Calculator

Notes & Assumptions

• Difficulty & reward are user inputs. This tool doesn’t fetch live data and makes no predictions.
• Pool mining vs solo: Formula gives expected payout. Solo variance is high; pools smooth it out with fees.
• Stales & downtime: Real fleets rarely hit 100% uptime; add a small stale/invalid percent to model real yields.
• Fees per block: Optional extra coin per block on top of the base subsidy to reflect average transaction fees.
• Fiat outputs are optional: Enter a coin price to see revenue and profit in your currency.

How Mining Profitability Works: Hashrate, Difficulty, Power & Costs

Mining profitability is the balance between expected block rewards and your operating costs, most notably electricity. This calculator uses the standard Bitcoin-style proof-of-work relation: expected coins/day = block reward × (hashes per second × 86,400) ÷ (difficulty × 2³²). From there, we adjust for real-world elements such as pool fees, stale shares, and uptime, and subtract electricity costs based on your power draw (Watts), hours per day, and price per kWh.

Key Inputs You Control

• Hashrate: Your effective pool-side hashrate in H/s (H, kH, MH, GH, TH, PH). This is the single biggest driver of expected rewards.
• Power (W): Average wall consumption, including PSU losses and any fans/auxiliary devices.
• Electricity cost (per kWh): Use your all-in rate: energy + transmission + taxes/fees. If you have time-of-use rates, consider your dominant operating window.
• Difficulty & Block Reward: Enter the current difficulty and the base subsidy. Optionally include a typical fee component (coin/block) if you want to account for transaction fees.
• Pool fee, stale %, uptime %: Pools charge a small fee and not all shares are accepted. Uptime captures maintenance, network hiccups, and power events.
• Coin price & hardware cost (optional): If provided, the tool shows fiat revenue/profit and a simple ROI estimate.

What Changes Profitability Most?

• Network difficulty: Higher difficulty means each hash contributes less expected reward. Difficulty is dynamic and can move materially over weeks.
• Block reward & fees: Rewards change with halving events (for Bitcoin-like chains) and fees fluctuate with network demand.
• ASIC efficiency: Better J/TH (hashes per joule) lowers your electricity cost per unit of hashrate. Tuning/firmware can improve efficiency at the expense of hashrate; test both ways.
• Power price: Even small changes in $/kWh can flip daily profit from positive to negative. Hosting contracts and demand charges matter.

Understanding Pool vs. Solo & Variance

The formula gives an expectation, not a guarantee. Solo mining has extreme variance—long stretches without a block, then a windfall. Pools reduce variance by distributing rewards according to contributed work, minus fees. The calculator’s “solo time to find a block” is a statistical expectation (1 ÷ blocks/day) and should not be interpreted as a schedule.

Electricity, Cooling & Site Effects

For many miners, electricity is 70–90% of operating cost. Consider:

• Cooling overhead: Fans, HVAC, immersion pumps, and heat rejection add real watts beyond the nameplate of the miner.
• Ambient conditions: High inlet temperatures reduce efficiency or force throttling. Dust increases maintenance and downtime.
• Demand charges & TOU: Some utilities bill peak demand or vary price by hour/season. A weighted average $/kWh gives a more honest picture.

Sensitivity & Scenario Testing

Profitability is highly sensitive to difficulty, reward, and power price. Try running multiple “what-if” scenarios: +/- 10% hashrate from firmware tuning; alternative electricity quotes; a future block reward; or a different difficulty. Watching how daily profit and breakeven power price respond will help you set thresholds for expansion or shutdown.

Formulas Shown (for transparency)

Coins/day: \( (R + F) \times \frac{H \times 86400}{D \times 2^{32}} \)   where \(R\)=block reward (coin), \(F\)=avg. fees per block (coin), \(H\)=hashes/s, \(D\)=difficulty.
Effective factor: \( \phi = (1 - \text{fee} - \text{stale}) \times \text{uptime} \).
Electricity/day: \( \frac{P_{\mathrm{W}}}{1000} \times 24 \times c_{\mathrm{kWh}} \times \text{uptime} \).

Limitations & Good Hygiene

• This is a static model—no live feeds, predictions, or financial advice.
• Results are estimates; real yields vary with pool luck, partial shares, firmware behavior, and site conditions.
• Re-run the calculator when any input (difficulty, reward, fees, price, power) changes meaningfully.

Tip: Efficiency in H/J (or J/TH) is a handy yardstick across models and settings. Lower J/TH usually wins—provided uptime and cooling hold up.