ASIC Miner Profitability: How to Estimate It (With Calculator)
Short answer: ASIC miner profitability is the mining revenue a machine produces minus its electricity cost (and pool fees). Revenue depends on the machine’s hashrate and on the current hashprice, the market value of one unit of hashrate per day, which changes constantly with coin prices, network difficulty and transaction fees. Electricity cost depends on the machine’s power draw and your price per kilowatt-hour. The calculator below does this arithmetic with numbers you enter.
Important: any profitability figure is a snapshot, not a forecast. Bitminers does not guarantee mining profitability or return on investment, and this page is not financial advice.
The formula
For a Bitcoin (SHA-256) miner:
- Daily revenue = hashrate (TH/s) × hashprice (USD per TH/s per day) × (1 − pool fee)
- Daily electricity cost = power (W) ÷ 1,000 × 24 hours × electricity price (USD per kWh)
- Daily net = daily revenue − daily electricity cost
- Simple payback = machine price ÷ daily net, if the daily net is positive and stays constant (it rarely does)
Hashprice is published daily by several mining data services and most large mining pools. Look up the current value for the algorithm you are mining before using the calculator.
Profitability calculator
This calculator only multiplies the numbers you enter. It does not use live data, and real results change daily with difficulty, coin price and fees.
Worked example (arithmetic only)
Take an air-cooled Bitcoin miner rated at 270 TH/s and 3,645 W, electricity at $0.10 per kWh, and a pool fee of 2%.
- Electricity: 3,645 W ÷ 1,000 × 24 h = 87.5 kWh per day, × $0.10 = $8.75 per day.
- Revenue: 270 × today’s hashprice × 0.98. If hashprice were $0.05 per TH/s per day, revenue would be $13.23 per day; if it were $0.03, revenue would be $7.94 per day, below the electricity cost.
The same machine can be cash-positive one month and cash-negative the next. That is why the break-even electricity price in the calculator is often more useful than a single profit number: it tells you the highest power price at which the machine covers its electricity at today’s hashprice.
What changes profitability
- Network difficulty: rises as more hashrate joins, reducing every machine’s share. It adjusts about every two weeks for Bitcoin.
- Coin price: revenue is paid in coins, so a price change moves USD revenue directly.
- Transaction fees: part of each block reward; they vary with network demand.
- Halvings: the Bitcoin block subsidy halves roughly every four years (the last was in April 2024; the next is expected around 2028).
- Electricity price and uptime: downtime, curtailment and seasonal rates all matter.
- Efficiency: lower J/TH means lower cost per unit of hashrate, which keeps a machine useful for longer as difficulty rises.
Costs people often forget
- Electrical work: dedicated 240 V circuits, breakers, PDUs.
- Cooling and ventilation, or hydro/immersion infrastructure.
- Pool fees, repairs, spare fans and power supplies.
- Shipping (Bitminers charges a flat $120 per order within the US).
- Taxes: in the US, mined coins are generally taxable income when received. See Is Crypto Mining Legal in the US?
Comparing machines
When two machines mine the same coin, compare efficiency first (J/TH for Bitcoin, J/GH or J/MH for Scrypt and others), then price per unit of hashrate, then the infrastructure each needs. Our best ASIC miners comparison lists efficiency figures for current models, and every product page lists hashrate and power so you can enter them in the calculator above.
Frequently asked questions
What is hashprice?
Hashprice is the expected mining revenue for one unit of hashrate per day, for example USD per TH/s per day for Bitcoin. It combines coin price, network difficulty, block subsidy and fees into one number and changes every day.
What electricity price do I need for mining to make sense?
It depends on the machine’s efficiency and on hashprice. Enter your machine’s figures in the calculator and read the break-even electricity price.
Can you tell me how much a miner will earn?
No. We list specifications and prices, not earnings. Mining revenue cannot be predicted reliably, and Bitminers does not guarantee profitability or return on investment.