Bitcoin mining: is it worth it today? Machines, revenue and electricity
Bitcoin mining only pays off today with an efficient ASIC miner and cheap electricity. At today's difficulty and price, 1 TH/s of hashrate earns about 0,84 Kč a day. An Antminer S21++ (235 TH/s, 3,760 W) therefore earns around 197 CZK a day. In hosting at 1.13 CZK/kWh its electricity costs 102 CZK, but at home at 5 CZK/kWh it costs over 450 CZK – and there it runs at a loss.
Summary
- Revenue is determined by four things: the BTC price, network difficulty, the electricity price and the machine's efficiency in J/TH.
- The S21++ (16 J/TH) stays profitable up to an electricity price of roughly 2.2 CZK/kWh, the water-cooled S23 Hyd (9.5 J/TH) up to 3.7 CZK/kWh.
- On a standard household tariff, mining doesn't pay off on its own. Hosting in a data centre makes sense, or a home miner that also heats.
- The next halving comes around April 2028 and will cut the block reward in half. Plan your payback with a margin.
How Bitcoin mining works in practice
Mining is done exclusively with ASIC miners – machines that can do only one thing: compute SHA-256 hashes trillions of times per second. You connect the miner to the internet and point it to a pool. The pool combines the hashrate of thousands of machines, finds blocks together and splits the reward according to the work contributed. Payouts go to your bitcoin address.
How a pool calculates rewards (FPPS, PPLNS, PPS+) is explained in the article PPS, PPLNS and FPPS. Solo mining without a pool is a lottery with a single machine – on average you would wait decades for a block.
What determines revenue
| Factor | Effect | What you can do |
|---|---|---|
| BTC price | revenue in koruna rises and falls with the exchange rate | can't be influenced; allow for a drop of tens of percent |
| Network difficulty | adjusts every 2,016 blocks; the more machines mine, the smaller your share | buy machines with low consumption per 1 TH/s |
| Electricity price | the largest operating cost, over 70 % of revenue for older machines | hosting with cheap electricity, prepaid electricity |
| Machine efficiency (J/TH) | how many watts 1 TH/s consumes: S19k Pro 23 J/TH, S21 17.5 J/TH, S23 Hyd 9.5 J/TH | follow the generations (S19 → S21 → S23) |
| Halving | halves the block reward once every 4 years | plan payback so the machine pays for itself before the halving |
| Transaction fees | a small part of the reward, rising when the network is congested | – |
As of 15 October 2026 the total network hashrate is around 1,100 EH/s and growing over the long term. To show how the market has changed: in 2023, 1 TH/s earned 6–8 US cents a day; today it's about 3.9 cents (roughly 39 USD per PH/s). Behind this are the 2024 halving and rising difficulty.
How much an ASIC miner earns today: the calculation
The table assumes revenue of 0.84 CZK per 1 TH/s per day (as of 18 October 2026) and electricity at 1.13 CZK/kWh, which is currently the cheapest location of our hosting. The pool fee is not included. The last column shows up to what electricity price the machine is still profitable.
| Model | Hashrate | Power | Efficiency | Gross revenue/day | Electricity/day (1.13 CZK/kWh) | Net/day | Profitable up to |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Antminer S23 Hyd | 563 TH/s | 5,349 W | 9.5 J/TH | 473 CZK | 145 CZK | 328 CZK | 3.68 CZK/kWh |
| Antminer S21 Pro+ | 245 TH/s | 3,675 W | 15 J/TH | 206 CZK | 100 CZK | 106 CZK | 2.33 CZK/kWh |
| Antminer S21++ | 235 TH/s | 3,760 W | 16 J/TH | 197 CZK | 102 CZK | 95 CZK | 2.19 CZK/kWh |
| Antminer S21 | 151 TH/s | 2,643 W | 17.5 J/TH | 127 CZK | 72 CZK | 55 CZK | 2.00 CZK/kWh |
| Canaan Avalon Q | 90 TH/s | 1,674 W | 18.6 J/TH | 76 CZK | 45 CZK | 30 CZK | 1.88 CZK/kWh |
| Antminer S19k Pro | 120 TH/s | 2,760 W | 23 J/TH | 101 CZK | 75 CZK | 26 CZK | 1.52 CZK/kWh |
The figures change every hour with the price and difficulty. Current revenue and payback for every machine can be found in the ASIC miner profitability table. The calculation shows the main rule: profit is decided not by raw hashrate, but by consumption per 1 TH/s and the price per kilowatt-hour.
Mining at home or in hosting?
If you plug an S21++ in at home and pay 5 CZK/kWh, it uses 90 kWh a day costing 451 CZK and mines 197 CZK. So you lose over 250 CZK a day. On top of that comes noise of around 75 dB and the need for a dedicated 220–277 V circuit.
A home miner as a heater
At home, mining makes sense mainly when the miner's heat replaces your heating. Almost all the power drawn turns into heat, just like with an electric heater. For example, an Avalon Q (90 TH/s, 1,674 W, around 45 dB in quiet mode) uses about 200 CZK of electricity a day and mines around 76 CZK. If you would heat the same room with electricity anyway, mining “returns” roughly 76 CZK a day from your heating bill. Outside the heating season, however, it doesn't pay off without cheap electricity. Quiet machines for a flat can be found in the Home mining collection.
Hosting in a data centre
In hosting, the miner sits in a data centre with industrial electricity, cooling and a technician on site. The machine remains yours and pool payouts go to your address. Prices of our hosting locations (including management) as of 16 October 2026:
| Location | Price per kWh | Approx. in CZK | Availability (uptime) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nigeria #2 | 0.0525 USD | 1.13 CZK | 97.12 % |
| Norway – Arctic | 0.064 USD | 1.38 CZK | 99.85 % |
| Finland | 0.065 USD | 1.40 CZK | 99.21 % |
| USA | 0.065 USD | 1.40 CZK | 99.54 % |
| Dubai #2 | 0.0665 USD | 1.43 CZK | 98.35 % |
| USA without service fees | 0.0798 USD | 1.72 CZK | 99.54 % |
| Ethiopia | 0.0849 USD | 1.83 CZK | 98.92 % |
The cheapest available location currently costs 1,13 Kč per kWh. If you pay for electricity in advance, you get a discount of 4 % for 1 year, 12 % for 3 years and 30 % for 7 years. Terms and free slots can be found on the ASIC miner hosting page.
Comparing with the table above shows that the S21++ and S21 Pro+ are profitable at all locations today. The older S19k Pro (threshold 1.52 CZK/kWh) only earns at the very cheapest ones.
How to get started step by step
- Work out your budget and payback. Bear in mind that the machine must pay for itself from revenue after electricity. Also try a scenario where BTC drops by a third.
- Choose the machine by efficiency (J/TH), not by raw hashrate. Water-cooled models need a water circuit or hosting.
- Decide where the machine will run: at home (heating, a quiet model), at your own premises, or in hosting.
- Set up a bitcoin wallet and prepare an address for payouts (we recommend the bc1q… format).
- Choose a pool and payout method (FPPS for steadier income, PPLNS for a lower fee).
- Connect the miner, configure the pool and keep an eye on hashrate, temperatures and payouts for the first few days.
Risks to allow for
- A fall in the BTC price. Revenue in koruna drops immediately, while the machine instalment and electricity stay the same.
- Rising difficulty. Every new generation of machines raises the network hashrate. Machines with worse efficiency are the first to drop out.
- The 2028 halving. The block reward will fall from 3.125 to 1.5625 BTC. At today's price and difficulty, the S21++ profitability threshold would shift to roughly 1.1 CZK/kWh. More in the article Bitcoin halving.
- Breakdowns. Hashboards, power supplies and fans fail most often. We repair ASIC miners at our service centre in Prague.
- Scams. “Cloud mining” with a guaranteed daily return and no specific machine is almost always a scam. If you don't know where your miner physically stands, don't sign.
What next
- Bitcoin miners – current SHA-256 machines including the S21 and S23, each with a revenue calculation.
- SHA-256 coins – the same machine can mine Bitcoin Cash or eCash instead of Bitcoin; a comparison of revenue and risks.
- What is Bitcoin – if you'd like to understand how the network works first.
Sources
Frequently asked questions
How much does it cost to start mining Bitcoin?
How much electricity does a Bitcoin miner use per month?
How long does it take for a miner to start earning?
Which pool should I choose for Bitcoin mining?
What happens to revenue after the 2028 halving?
This text was prepared with the help of AI. Facts, figures and procedures were checked by Yegor.
