Payout Threshold
The payout threshold is the minimum you need to accumulate on a pool before a transfer goes out. Setting it lower or higher trades fees against risk, and the trade has a right side.
How thresholds and schedules work
Earnings pile up on your pool account balance, and a payout leaves once the sum crosses the threshold. On most pools the threshold adjusts anywhere from symbolic to large, and above it a schedule takes over: once a day at a fixed time.
A low threshold means frequent small payouts. Pleasant psychologically and expensive in practice: every payout is an on-chain transaction with its own fee, and dozens of small inputs in the wallet will later cost you dearly at consolidation.
A high threshold saves on fees but stockpiles risk: a balance on a pool is trust in somebody else's platform. Mining history knows pools that shut down along with their clients' balances, so a pool is a workplace for money, not a savings bank.
The sensible middle is tied to network fees: a threshold at which the payout fee gets lost against the sum, and a withdrawal at least once every week or two. The setting takes a minute in the pool dashboard and somehow stays at factory default for half of all miners.
The short version in a table
| What it is | the minimum balance before a transfer |
| Low threshold | frequent payouts, fees eat them |
| High threshold | fee savings, risk parked on the pool |
| The benchmark | the payout fee is invisible against the sum |
| Plus one rule | keep no more on the pool than feels calm |
How to tune it for yourself
Check who pays the network fee for a payout: the pool from its own pocket or a deduction from your sum. It changes the threshold math.
Raise the threshold so a payout happens once every few days: fewer inputs in the wallet, cheaper future consolidation.
Never stockpile sums on the pool whose loss would sting: the threshold is also a ceiling on your trust in the platform.
Revisit the setting after changing your fleet: a grown hashrate crosses the old threshold faster than you are used to.
An arithmetic example
At the factory threshold a payout left almost daily, and a month piled up thirty transactions with a fee on each, plus thirty inputs in the wallet. A threshold raised to a week's worth of mining left four payouts a month: an order of magnitude less in fees, cheaper consolidation, and the risk on the pool capped at one week of work.
Related terms
Where to go next on the site
Numbers
Coins
- Bitcoin coins
Questions and answers
Why does the pool set a minimum threshold at all
To avoid spraying dust: thousands of micro payouts clog the network and burn fees. The threshold protects both the pool and you.
My balance hit the threshold and there is no payout
Most often payouts run on a schedule once a day, and the threshold is checked at that moment. Look up the payout time in the pool's rules.
Is it better to withdraw more often or less often
Less often, as long as the sum on the pool stays noncritical for you: fewer fees and larger inputs. The line is drawn not by math but by your peace of mind.
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 .