Mining profitability
Mining profitability is the difference between what the asic earned and what it pulled from the wall. Counted per day or per month.
What profitability is
Every asic has two numbers. The first is revenue: how many coins it mined and what they are worth in euros today. The second is cost: kilowatt hours multiplied by your rate. Profitability is the first minus the second, and the sign of the result can go either way.
Revenue depends on hashrate, network difficulty, the block reward and the coin's price, four things you control none of. Cost depends on the miner's draw and your rate, and the rate is the one knob a buyer can actually turn.
That is why the same asic lives a different life with two owners. At an industrial site paying five or six cents per kilowatt hour, an S21 sits firmly in the black. On the Spanish household rate of about 0.135 euros the same ASIC teeters on the edge, and older asics slide into an honest loss.
There is a handy figure for a quick estimate: the break-even point, the price per kilowatt hour at which income equals cost. Below that price the miner earns, above it it burns money. The lower the J/TH, the higher the break-even point and the more rates the asic can live with.
The short version
| Formula | revenue for the period minus electricity |
| Revenue depends on | hashrate, difficulty, reward, coin price |
| Cost depends on | the miner's draw and your rate |
| Your only knob | the electricity rate |
| Quick estimate | break-even point in €/kWh |
How to run your own numbers
Start with cost, it computes exactly. Multiply the miner's draw in kilowatts by 24 to get kilowatt hours per day, then multiply by your rate. An S21 at 3.5 kW eats 84 kWh a day: at 0.135 euros that is about 11 euros a day, roughly 340 euros a month for power alone.
Then revenue. Let the calculator do it: you pick the model, it fills in hashrate and draw from the catalog, you enter your rate and see what stays in your pocket. Doing it by hand makes no sense, difficulty and price move faster than you can finish the math.
And keep the shelf life of the estimate in mind. Difficulty resets every two weeks and has grown for years, the price goes where it wants. A calculation made today will be stale by winter. We suggest using current figures with no built-in price growth: if it works as is, growth becomes a nice bonus, not a survival condition.
A live asic as an example
Antminer S21: 200 TH/s, 3500 W, 17.5 J/TH. On the Spanish household rate it costs about 11 euros a day to run. So revenue has to clear that bar, otherwise the asic works as a space heater with expensive filling. A WhatsMiner M66 with its 5572 W has a bar around 18 euros a day, and clearing it is harder, even though it brings more hashrate.
Hence the practical rule: comparing asics by hashrate tells you little, compare them by J/TH and by break-even point against your own rate.
Related terms
Where to go next on the site
Numbers
Hardware
- Antminer S21 tool
- WhatsMiner M66 tool
Coins
- Bitcoin coins
Questions and answers
Is mining at home in Spain worth it
On the regular household rate, usually not: most asics break even below 0.135 euros per kilowatt hour. The chances lie with the newest low J/TH models, night rates and your own solar power.
Why was the asic in the black yesterday and in the red today
One of the four revenue variables moved: price, difficulty, network fees or the reward. The cost side stayed put, so the sign flipped.
Which matters more, hashrate or efficiency
For profitability, efficiency. A miner with lower J/TH earns more from every kilowatt hour, and kilowatt hours are exactly what you pay for.
Should I build price growth into the estimate
We suggest not. If the numbers work at today's price, growth becomes a bonus. If they only work with growth, that is a bet, not a calculation.
How do I account for heat
In summer, in a closed room, the asic throttles and mines less, and if you add air conditioning, its draw joins the bill. Set aside a few percent of losses for the hot months in your estimate.
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 .