Pool Fee
The pool fee is a percentage of your earnings taken for the pool's work. The storefront numbers look alike, while the real cost of pools differs more than it seems.
What the fee is made of
The open part is simple: a percentage of earnings, on most pools somewhere from one to four. The fee under PPS runs higher than under PPLNS, and that is fair: a PPS pool absorbs luck variance and orphan risk, the insurance is included in the price.
Then come the details missing from the storefront. Does the pool pay the network fee for your payout or deduct it from the sum. At what rate does it convert the second coin of merged mining if it pays in one. What happens to the transaction fees from a block: under FPPS they go into earnings, under pure PPS they stay with the pool.
That last point carries the most weight: in busy weeks the fee share of a block reward grows noticeably, and the gap between with fees and without covers the gap in storefront percentages. Which is why comparing pools by one percentage number is pointless.
An honest comparison runs on your own numbers: a month on one pool, a month on another with the same fleet, then compare the actual wallet arrivals per terahash. The storefront promises, the wallet knows.
The short version in a table
| The open part | a percentage of earnings, usually 1 to 4 |
| PPS above PPLNS | insurance against variance is in the price |
| The hidden spots | payout fees, the conversion rate |
| The heaviest one | whether block fees go into earnings |
| The honest test | wallet arrivals per terahash |
How to compare pools like a grown-up
Read the terms page, not the storefront: payout scheme, what counts as earnings, who pays for the transfer.
Compare your actual arrivals against a calculator for the same period: a systematic shortfall is the real fee.
Price the service in: stability, nearby servers, support, live monitoring. A cheap pool with dropouts costs more than an honest one.
Rethink the choice occasionally, but don't hop monthly: on PPLNS every pool switch loses a warmed-up window.
A comparison example
Two pools: the first shows 2 percent on the storefront, the second 4. The first runs pure PPS and keeps block fees for itself, the second runs FPPS and hands them to miners. In a month with a loaded mempool the second brought more to the wallet, despite a number twice as big on the storefront. The percentage turned out to be the cheapest part of the comparison.
Related terms
Where to go next on the site
Numbers
Coins
- Bitcoin coins
Questions and answers
Do pools with zero fees exist
Promos and zero rates happen, but a pool lives on something: check what happens with block fees, the conversion rate, and payout charges.
Why are my arrivals below the calculator's number
Pool fee, PPLNS variance, downtime and stale shares add up. A gap of a few percent is explainable, a consistently bigger one is worth investigating.
Should I pick a pool by the fee alone
No: the storefront percentage is the smaller part of the real price. Payout scheme, block fees and stability matter more.
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 .