Breakeven Tariff
The breakeven tariff is the electricity price at which an asic's revenue equals its cost. Below it the miner earns, above it burns money.
What the breakeven tariff is
Revenue is set by the market and it is the same for everyone: the price of a terahash per day. The cost is set by you, through your tariff. The point where those two lines meet is the breakeven tariff. It is handy because it turns the whole economics of an asic into one number you can hold up against the bill from your energy supplier.
For SHA-256 there is a quick estimate: the ceiling price of a kilowatt hour in euros is about 1.08 divided by the miner's efficiency in J/TH. An Antminer S21 at 17.5 J/TH comes out around six cents. An asic at 30 J/TH lands near three and a half cents, and a veteran at 60 J/TH below two.
That shows why most asics run at a loss on the Spanish household rate of about €0.135: their breakeven sits several times lower. The first to go dark are miners with a high J/TH, and that is arithmetic rather than opinion, the same for every owner.
The constant in the formula is not forever: it depends on the coin price, network difficulty and fees, which is the same hashprice. Recalculating it every few months makes sense, and it is better to read a fresh figure in the calculator, where the network data fills itself in.
Quick reference table
| What it is | the tariff at which income equals cost |
| Quick estimate for SHA-256 | €/kWh is about 1.08 divided by J/TH |
| S21 at 17.5 J/TH | about 6 cents |
| An asic at 30 J/TH | about 3.5 cents |
| What moves the constant | coin price, difficulty, fees |
How to use this number
Compare the breakeven tariff with your own before you buy, not after. If your tariff is above it, the asic will run at a loss from day one, and no firmware fixes that.
Leave room for the halving and for rising difficulty. An asic whose breakeven sits a bit above your tariff today can end up below it in a year, because difficulty grows and the breakeven slides down.
And remember to round against yourself. On top of the electricity itself come the charge for contracted power, losses in the wiring and the work of the ventilation. The real even point is always a little worse than the calculated one.
An example on two asics
An S21 at 17.5 J/TH with a breakeven around six cents does not cover its electricity at a rate of €0.135. A WhatsMiner M66 at 19.9 J/TH is further from zero still. For asics like these to turn a profit you need an industrial contract or your own generation, and that has to be settled before shipping rather than after the first bill.
Related terms
Where to go next on the site
Numbers
Hardware
- Antminer S21 tool
- WhatsMiner M66 tool
Questions and answers
Where does the 1.08 coefficient come from
It is the revenue of one terahash per day, converted into euros and brought down to kilowatt hours. It moves with the coin price and difficulty, so the figure is worth updating.
Can you lower your own breakeven
The asic sets the breakeven, not you: it follows the J/TH. What you can lower is the cost, by negotiating a tariff, adding generation or picking a more efficient model.
Does the breakeven tariff account for the cost of the asic
No, electricity only. For the full picture add payback: the breakeven tariff shows whether the miner runs even, and ROI shows whether it earns back its price.
How the terms connect
Every link in the chain is clickable. Orange marks where you are now.
Looking for an ASIC miner
The catalog holds 212 models. You can compare them by hashrate and by joules per terahash, then plug your own rate into the calculator and see what stays in your pocket.
Page written and checked by Denys Klimchuk. Updated .