Bitcoin mining calculator is a tool that you will need to use to calculate how big of profit you can get from a particular bitcoin miner. The final result comprises several calculated aspects such as hardware, power costs, fees, exchange rates, etc.
In this guide, we will do a quick tour into calculating bitcoin mining profitability.
Bitcoin Miners
Before we jump into calculations and stuff, let’s take a quick look at bitcoin miners.
The whole Bitcoin network is fully dependant on bitcoin mining. Bitcoin miners are responsible for updating Bitcoin’s ledger, also known as the blockchain. The principle is simple: it’s all about quantity – the more miners you have, the more secure blockchain you get because a large number of miners make for a decentralized system.
Because miners are so important for the blockchain’s stable operation, a special rewarding system had been developed to encourage miners for their mining service – a bitcoin miner gets a particular amount of Bitcoins for every mined block.
Today, bitcoin mining is extremely competitive. But that does not mean that you can’t profit from bitcoin mining. It is still possible to successfully mine bitcoins if you know what key factors you should consider for the highest mining profitability.
Factors That Affect Bitcoin Mining Profitability
The key factors that must be considered when calculating future bitcoin mining profitability are:
- The cost of mining hardware equipment
- Equipment’s efficiency & electricity costs
- Mining difficulty
- Network hash power
- Bitcoin price & block reward
In the following sections below, we will explore each of these conditions.
Mining hardware costs
When starting a Bitcoin mining venture, mining hardware equipment is the first significant investment a miner will have to make. You know that a good computer will be quite expensive. But when it comes down to buying a mining computer, the prices can rise drastically. Because Bitcoin mining requires an insane amount of computing power.
One of the most important features one must look at when choosing a mining hardware computer is hash rate. Hash rate indicates the Bitcoin network’s computing power. Bitcoin network hash rate is measured in Terra hash per second (TH/s). The higher the TH/s hash rate value is, the more calculations per second your mining hardware can make.
Another thing that must be taken into account is the cooling system of your hardware. When working, a mining computer will generate a massive amount of heat. So when assembling your hardware miner, think of purchasing some high-quality cooling fans because there is just no use of a high hash rate when your mining unit shuts down because of overheating.
And finally, you will also have to take care of power consumption. Mining will require a lot of electricity (more about electricity costs below). When calculating the cost and potential profitability of your future mining project, add power supplies to the “hardware cost” section of your Bitcoin calculator.
Here are the top three ASIC miners on the market to choose from:
Antminer T19 (an ASIC miner by Bitmain)
- Hash rate is 84 Terra hash per second
- Power consumption is 3150W
Antminer S19 Pro by Bitmain
- The hash rate is 110 TH/s
- Power consumption is 3250W
M30 S++ (an ASIC miner by MicroBT)
- The hash rate is 112 TH/s
- Power consumption is 3472W
Mining hardware efficiency & electricity costs
a) However, it is not enough to only look at the hash power index of your bitcoin miner. What you need is not just a powerful miner but also an efficient one. What does it mean?
Look at choosing a miner just like at choosing a car. Among other conditions like the number of horsepowers and such, we also look at how much fuel it will consume. With miners, you will have to take into account the number of bitcoins mined compared with the amount of electrical power consumed.
The reason is obvious – mining uses an insane amount of electricity. And electricity is not for free. So if you are choosing a miner, you need the one that will have a high bitcoin hash rate and will be power-efficient. Such efficiency is measured in Watts per Gigahash (W/Gh). In order to be more electricity efficient, your miner should have the lowest W/Gh value possible.
b) Electricity cost is what stands in the way of every bitcoin miner. A huge power bill that a beginner miner receives monthly can water down their mining revenue.
One of the cheapest power cost rates is in China. That is why almost 60% of the world’s Bitcoin hashing power is moved to that country. In the US, you will find a lower electricity cost in the state of Washington. That’s because they use hydroelectric plants there. For that reason, most of America’s Bitcoin hardware is located in that state. When Venezuela faced a crisis with the lower electricity cost. As a result, the country became a new profitable region for Bitcoin mining.
Another thing miners have to take into account is the electricity cost for cooling. Since mining computers generate heat, they require constant cooling to keep the mining process going. If there is not enough cooling, it may affect mining hardware in a negative way resulting in a halt or damage your mining computer beyond repair. But there are some solutions to the problem.
For instance, those bitcoin miners who live in colder climates came up with the idea of heating their houses during winters with the heat that their mining computers produce. This way, they manage to save some cash by partially replacing their in-house heating devices with mining computers. Besides, living in colder conditions, you don’t need to spend more money buying additional cooling equipment.
Mining difficulty level
What every beginner bitcoin miner should know is that the mining difficulty changes all the time. As more and more miners occur within the network, the mining difficulty is increased. This procedure is crucial because the difficulty keeps the BTC inflation under control.
With the mining difficulty regulated, BTC mining stays within its standard interval of 10 minutes. To put it another way, when the difficulty changes, it serves as an indication that more or stronger miners have joined the blockchain and are currently mining bitcoins.
In fact, it’s easy to notice that the difficulty level is changed every two weeks, which makes the whole process quite predictable. This is possible thanks to the difficulty target protocol – a tool that automatically regulates the difficulty level, ensuring the safe and stable operation of the whole network.
The BTC difficulty level will affect your mining revenue. So you should pay close attention to the difficulty adjustments.
Bitcoin price & block reward
a) The BTC currency has a very high exchange rate. But the certain price of bitcoins cannot be predicted. It’s highly variable.
Your BTC earnings are shown in USD and are based on the exchange rate that is current for the time of calculation. Here’s an example:
- If you mine BTC with the price of X and the day after that the currency experiences a drop to the value of Y, that means that your profits will also decrease.
- And quite the opposite, the BTC exchange rate may experience a boost which will result in the growth of your profits.
When mining bitcoins, be prepared for such price changes and always keep in mind that you cannot control or affect Bitcoin exchange rates.
b) Good news is that what you can predict while mining is your block reward.
The size of a block reward is subject to change every four years. The principle is simple – every four years, a block reward gets cut in half. Here’s what it looks like:
- The price of one block in 2012 was 25 BTC;
- 2016’s block rewards were 12.5 BTC;
- In 2020 each mined block was rewarded at 6.25 BTC;
- In 2024, a block will cost 3.125 BTC.
At this point, we must make an important notice stating that while block reward gets smaller, Bitcoin itself keeps growing in demand, and bitcoin miners are still able to profit from it.
Making Consultations via Bitcoin Mining Calculator
With all the information above, let’s take a look at the bitcoin mining calculator example and see how to calculate your future earnings (or losses).
DISCLAIMER: While entering the data, keep in mind that there are some fields that require to be filled and some fields that you can skip if you’re unsure. But the more conditions you’re entering into the bitcoin mining calculator, the more precise the results of calculations will be.
1) Difficulty level factor
First things first, you must start your calculations by entering the difficulty level. As we said earlier, the difficulty level changes every two weeks keeping Bitcoin stable and making it harder or easier to mine bitcoins.
2) Hash rate (TH/s)
Then you must insert your mining computer bitcoin hashrate (TH/s). Just a reminder, the higher the hash rate is, the more calculations your hardware is capable of. For instance, Bitmain’s Antminer S17 packs the hashrate of 56 TH/s. Antminer S17’s closest rival, Antminer S19, will have a hashrate of 84 TH/s which is a significant difference compared to Antminer S17. MicroBT’s M30 S++ mining unit has a hashrate of 112 TH/s.
3) BTC/USD exchange rate
Then you must enter the BTC/USD exchange rate that will show the bitcoin/dollar ratio. Since the bitcoin price is not stable, the BTC/USD exchange rate will differ daily.
4) BTC/Block reward
The BTC/block reward is the constant value that shows how much a bitcoin miner profits from each mined block. The BTC/block reward values every four years – it gets cut in half, and today (in 2021) is 6.25 BTC. Three years from now, the BTC/block reward will be 3.125 BTC for a block.
5) Mining pool fees
The “pool fees” field is the field where you must enter the number of transaction fees for a certain mining pool. Usually, mining pools will charge from 1% to 3%.
6) Hardware cost
Your next entry is how much money you are going to invest (or have already invested) in your CPU/GPU hardware for bitcoin mining. The price will include all the mining equipment, including cooling fans.
7) Power consumption
This field is for how much power your mining hardware consumes. Compared to your CPU-s hash rate, the power consumption parameter will show if your hardware is power efficient or not. Bitcoin mining is extremely heavy on power consumption, so while mining bitcoins, you have to be aware of how much electricity your mining computer consumes and whether or not the amount of your bitcoin earnings is worth it.
8) Electricity costs
This is the final field in the bitcoin mining calculator. Here you must enter your electricity rate. i.e., how much you pay for electricity monthly.
When you have entered all the information, the bitcoin mining calculator will give you the results of your potential earnings. The calculation results will include different time spans: a day, a week, a month, six months, and one full year.
By studying their calculation charts, miners see if they have chances for profits by bitcoin mining or the costs mining requires will not pay off.
What Beginner Miners Usually Ask
How to start mining bitcoins?
To get into bitcoin mining, you will need to:
- Buy a bitcoin miner (a high-hashrate computer equipped with multiple cooling fans)
- Install a mining software
- Join a mining pool
- Begin mining
Does mining bitcoins take too long?
Let’s imagine that you’re using the Antminer S17 by Bitmain (hashrate is 56 TH/s), and the year is 2019. Back then, you would spend 531 days mining one full Bitcoin with that computer. But keep in mind that this calculation may no longer be relevant by the time you will read this. The reason is that, as you already know, the Bitcoin difficulty level changes every 14 days. So your best option is to use a bitcoin mining calculation with all the up-to-date information to get the relevant calculation done before you venture into bitcoin mining.
How much can I mine in a day?
Again, this all depends on what kind of ASIC miner you’re planning to use: Bitmain’s Antminer S19 or Micro BT’s M30 S++. What hashrate does your miner have? What is its power consumption? What is your electricity rate? All of these will eventually affect your daily BTC earnings. So there is no average answer to this question.
Is bitcoin mining still worth it?
Do people still make profits from bitcoin mining? The answer is yes. You still can make earnings by bitcoin mining as far as you invest in your hardware. While once mining bitcoins was a sort of a hobby for tech nerds and such, today, this is a very expensive thing to do. The competition is insane and is ever-growing. And the BTC/USD exchange rate is not going down any time soon. And if you’re seriously thinking of becoming a miner in 2021, you should do a lot of research on the matter before you proceed with investing in your first miner.
Use Bitcoin Mining Calculator to See Into the Future
As a wrap-up, we would advise you to use a mining calculator to get a wider view of your potential earnings (or losses). But as you’re doing your calculation, keep in mind that there are certain parameters that are never constant. Things like the BTC exchange rate or difficulty level change every single day and can affect your profits. So it is very important to remember that one calculation is never enough.
FAQs
How long does it take to mine 1 Bitcoin?
The results of bitcoin mining fully depend on what ASIC miner you use (its hashrate, power consumption, etc.) There is no way to give an average answer to how long it will take to mine one full bitcoin. Results will vary if you use an M30 S++ by MicroBT or one of Bitmain’s Antminers. Besides, on the one hand, miners get more powerful each year. But on the other hand, the difficulty level also changes, and overall, miners’ competition only increases.
Is it worth mining bitcoin in 2021?
If you decide to begin mining bitcoins in 2021, the first thing you should do is use a mining calculator to see if there is any sense in becoming a miner. Having entered such data as your miner’s hash rate (even if you don’t own one yet), its power consumption rate, and its power efficiency parameter, how much money you pay for electrical power, etc., you will see the approximate estimation of your potential earnings. As for the BTC itself, it is still in high demand, and the exchange rate still looks impressive.
How many Bitcoins can mine daily?
The answer to this question will depend on several parameters of your mining equipment:
- Hash rate (TH/s)
- Power consumption
- Efficiency (W/Gh)
For instance, in 2021, with 1% of the pool’s hash rate (TH/s), one miner may mine approximately 1.79 BTC daily.
How much does it cost to mine 1 Bitcoin 2021?
Mining at a hash rate of 40 TH/s, a hardware miner spends $4.32, which makes the total of $1,576 of the annual cost of mining bitcoins with an anticipated reward of only 0.08875 BTC. To get the full sum, you will need to add the expenses of purchasing or renting mining hardware.
