The only hardware that can mine Bitcoin profitably in 2026 is a SHA-256 ASIC, a chip built for that one job. Whether a given ASIC makes money depends almost entirely on two numbers: its efficiency in joules per terahash (J/TH) and what you pay for electricity. Revenue was $39.87 per petahash per day on 28 September 2026 (Hashrate Index). At that rate, a 13.5 J/TH air-cooled machine breaks even at about $0.12/kWh. A 9.5 J/TH hydro unit breaks even at about $0.17/kWh. Older 22 J/TH machines stop paying at about $0.075/kWh.
Where the network stands (October 2026)
- Difficulty: 140.58T, set at the retarget at block 971,712 on 16 October 2026 (mempool.space). On 28 September it was 132.76T (Hashrate Index).
- Hashrate: mempool.space estimated about 1,068 EH/s on 25 October 2026. Hashrate Index reported a 7-day average of 952 EH/s on 28 September 2026. Short-window hashrate estimates swing a lot, so treat any single reading as approximate.
- Block subsidy: 3.125 BTC since the fourth halving at block 840,000 on 20 April 2024. The subsidy halves every 210,000 blocks, so the next cut is due at block 1,050,000, expected in 2028.
- Fees: In the week to 28 September 2026, transaction fees were 0.70% of block rewards, about 22 BTC (Hashrate Index). Almost all miner income currently comes from the subsidy paid in each block's generation transaction.
- Hashprice: $39.87 per PH/s per day on 28 September 2026, with BTC at about $83,479 (Hashrate Index). Hashprice is gross revenue per unit of hashrate before any costs. It moves with BTC price, difficulty and fees.
What mining hardware actually does
A miner computes SHA-256 hashes of candidate block headers until one falls below the network's difficulty target. The miner or pool that finds it collects the block subsidy plus fees. Your expected share of rewards equals your share of total network hashrate, which is why efficiency matters more than raw speed. Every hash costs electricity, and the network sets the price you are paid for it.
A complete ASIC unit contains:
- Hash boards carrying the ASIC chips that do the hashing
- A control board that runs the firmware and connects to a mining pool
- A power supply. Current Bitmain air-cooled units take 220–277 V AC, so standard 110–120 V household outlets are not enough.
- Cooling: fans (air), liquid cold plates (hydro), or dielectric fluid tanks (immersion)
How Bitcoin mining hardware evolved
- CPU (2009): Bitcoin launched in January 2009, and ordinary computer processors could mine it.
- GPU (from 2010): Graphics cards run many hash computations in parallel and replaced CPUs for Bitcoin mining.
- FPGA (2011–2013): Programmable chips running only the SHA-256 pipeline. The Bitcoin Wiki hardware table lists FPGA miners from 2011, with efficiencies of tens of megahashes per joule.
- ASIC (from 2013): Avalon, the brand that became Canaan, shipped its first batch of 300 ASIC miners on 19 January 2013 (Bitcoin Magazine, at the time). ASICs made every earlier hardware type obsolete for Bitcoin.
Today's best ASICs reach about 9.5 J/TH. That is more than 100 billion hashes per joule, against tens of millions for the best FPGAs in the Bitcoin Wiki table. CPUs and GPUs are no longer a practical way to mine Bitcoin. They still mine some coins whose algorithms are designed to resist ASICs.
Does your ASIC pay at your power price?
Enter your machine's hashrate and power draw, the current hashprice and your all-in electricity rate to see the daily margin before other costs.
| Machine hashrate | Machine power draw | Hashprice (gross revenue per PH/s per day) | Your all-in electricity price, including hosting | Daily margin before pool fees, hosting margins, repairs and depreciation |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0.27 PH/s | 3.645 kW | 39.87 $ | 0.07 $/kWh | 4.64 $ |
| 0.58 PH/s | 5.51 kW | 39.87 $ | 0.07 $/kWh | 13.87 $ |
| 0.27 PH/s | 3.645 kW | 39.87 $ | 0.12 $/kWh | 0.27 $ |
- Every input is your own value; defaults and examples reuse the article's S21 XP and S23 Hyd specs, the 28 September 2026 hashprice and the $0.07/kWh and $0.12/kWh rates.
- A positive result means the machine covered its electricity on those inputs; a negative result means it lost money on power alone.
This is a one-day snapshot on your inputs only: it leaves out pool fees, hosting margins, repairs, shipping, import duties, downtime, hardware cost and depreciation, and cannot predict hashprice changes from BTC price, difficulty or the next halving.
Current-generation hardware: specs
| Model | Hashrate and power | Efficiency | Cooling |
|---|---|---|---|
| Antminer S23 Hyd | 580 TH/s, 5,510 W | 9.5 J/TH | Hydro |
| Antminer S21 XP | 270 TH/s, 3,645 W | 13.5 J/TH | Air |
| Antminer S21 Pro | 234 TH/s, 3,510 W | 15.0 J/TH | Air |
Bitmain announced the S23 Hyd on 27 May 2025, with shipping from the first quarter of 2026. The S21 XP sheet also lists 76 dBA noise and an 18.7 kg net weight. That is about as loud as a busy street, so it does not belong in living space. Retail prices vary widely by vendor and date. Ask for a dated quote and compare it per terahash.
The breakeven formula
Two lines of arithmetic cover most of the decision:
- Daily revenue = hashrate in PH/s × hashprice
- Daily power cost = power in kW × 24 × electricity price per kWh
An ASIC at E J/TH uses E kilowatts per petahash. So its breakeven electricity price = hashprice ÷ (24 × E).
At the 28 September 2026 hashprice of $39.87:
| Efficiency | Example | Breakeven power price |
|---|---|---|
| 9.5 J/TH | S23 Hyd | ~$0.175/kWh |
| 13.5 J/TH | S21 XP | ~$0.123/kWh |
| 15 J/TH | S21 Pro | ~$0.111/kWh |
| 17.5 J/TH | earlier air models | ~$0.095/kWh |
| 22 J/TH | older fleet | ~$0.076/kWh |
Worked examples at $0.07/kWh
- S21 XP: 0.27 PH/s × $39.87 = $10.76 gross per day. Power costs 3.645 kW × 24 × $0.07 = $6.12, which leaves about $4.64 per day before pool fees, hosting, repairs and depreciation.
- S23 Hyd (580 TH/s): 0.58 × $39.87 = $23.12 gross per day. Power costs 5.51 kW × 24 × $0.07 = $9.26, which leaves about $13.87 per day before the same costs.
These numbers are a snapshot. When hashprice falls, through a lower BTC price or higher difficulty, every breakeven price in the table falls with it. The next halving, expected in 2028, is the clearest known event that will cut it. Run the formula with current hashprice before you buy, and again at half that value.
Choosing hardware
- Start with your power price, including hosting. A facility's all-in rate per kWh is the number that matters. A cheap machine on expensive power loses money, and the extra efficiency of a costly machine only pays off over its working life.
- Match cooling to your site. Air-cooled units need high-voltage circuits, airflow and noise isolation. Hydro and immersion units need coolant loops and industrial power, so they usually suit hosted or purpose-built sites.
- Price per terahash against efficiency. A used, less efficient machine can look cheap. Look up the breakeven price for its efficiency class and compare it with your rate before you buy.
- Plan for depreciation. Each new generation pushes difficulty up and lowers what older machines earn. A unit's resale value falls as newer, more efficient models ship.
- Count the extra costs: pool fees, hosting margins, repairs (fans, power supplies, hash boards), shipping, import duties and downtime.
Who it suits
- Likely to work: sites with power well below the breakeven price for their hardware, including operators using curtailed or stranded energy, as long as they can keep machines running.
- Hard to make work: home miners on typical residential tariffs, buyers of older second-hand fleets above roughly 20 J/TH, and anyone who needs a short payback. Hashprice can move a lot within months.
