Bitcoin halving countdown: when is the next halving?
The block reward drops from 3.125 to 1.5625 BTC at block 1,050,000. Here's how long that should take, how the estimate works, and what halvings actually change.
The next Bitcoin halving happens at block 1,050,000, when the reward for each new block drops from 3.125 BTC to 1.5625 BTC. At Bitcoin's target of one block every 10 minutes, that's expected around April 2028. The exact day depends on how fast blocks arrive, so the countdown below uses the live block height.
- Current block height
- 974,611
- Halving block
- 1,050,000
- Blocks left
- 75,389
- Estimated date
- April 2028
- Reward now → after
- 3.125 → 1.5625 BTC
- Progress since the April 2024 halving
- 64.1%
Estimated from block 974,611 (November 4, 2026) at one block every 10 minutes. Loading the live block height…
What a halving is
Bitcoin pays the miner who adds each new block a block reward of newly created bitcoin, plus the fees from the transactions in that block. Bitcoin's code cuts that new-coin reward in half every 210,000 blocks. That's the halving. It happens automatically: no company, vote or announcement is involved.
Blocks arrive about every 10 minutes on average, so 210,000 blocks takes roughly four years. The reward started at 50 BTC in 2009 and has been 3.125 BTC since April 20, 2024. At block 1,050,000 it becomes 1.5625 BTC.
How the countdown is estimated
A halving is set by block height, not by date, so any date is an estimate. The countdown takes the latest block height from mempool.space, a public Bitcoin block explorer, and multiplies the blocks left by 10 minutes, Bitcoin's target time between blocks:
Estimated time left = (1,050,000 − current block height) × 10 minutes
Worked example: at block 974,611 (mined November 4, 2026), 75,389 blocks were left. 75,389 × 10 minutes = 753,890 minutes, or about 524 days, which points to around mid-April 2028. If the live height can't be loaded, the page estimates it from that block at one block per 10 minutes.
Real block times wander. When miners add computing power, blocks come faster until the next difficulty adjustment (every 2,016 blocks) slows them down again. Over the last few years, blocks have averaged close to 10 minutes but rarely exactly: a pace of 10 minutes 15 seconds would push the date back by about two weeks. Expect the estimate to move by days, not months.
Every Bitcoin halving so far
| # | Date (UTC) | Block | Reward per block | BTC price that day | BTC already created |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | November 28, 2012 | 210,000 | 50 → 25 BTC | $12.33 | 10,500,000 |
| 2 | July 9, 2016 | 420,000 | 25 → 12.5 BTC | $651.94 | 15,750,000 |
| 3 | May 11, 2020 | 630,000 | 12.5 → 6.25 BTC | $8,592 | 18,375,000 |
| 4 | April 20, 2024 | 840,000 | 6.25 → 3.125 BTC | $64,908 | 19,687,500 |
| 5 | Expected around April 2028 | 1,050,000 | 3.125 → 1.5625 BTC | — | 20,343,750 |
Price: Coin Metrics daily close for the halving date (00:00 UTC the next day). "Already created" is the theoretical total from all blocks before the halving block. The fourth halving happened on the evening of April 19, 2024 in US time zones.
What a halving does
- New supply slows. Today about 450 new bitcoins are created per day (144 blocks × 3.125), or roughly 164,000 a year, about 0.8% of the coins in existence. After the 2028 halving it will be about 225 a day, roughly 0.4% a year.
- Miners' income from new coins halves overnight. Miners whose electricity or machines are expensive may switch off. If enough do, blocks slow down briefly until the difficulty adjusts downward.
- Fees matter more over time. As the reward shrinks, transaction fees become a bigger part of what pays miners to secure the network. Whether fees will be enough in the long run is an open debate.
- It doesn't change anything else. Existing coins, wallets, addresses and the 21 million limit are untouched. You don't need to do anything with coins you hold.
People often point to big price rises in the year or two after past halvings. With only four examples, each in a different market (and the 2024 ETF launch in the mix), that's a pattern noticed after the fact, not a rule. Prices have also fallen sharply after halving years. Nobody knows what the price will do around the next one, and anyone promising a "halving pump" is selling something.
Future halvings
| Halving | Block | Reward after | Rough year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5 | 1,050,000 | 1.5625 BTC | about 2028 |
| 6 | 1,260,000 | 0.78125 BTC | about 2032 |
| 7 | 1,470,000 | 0.390625 BTC | about 2036 |
| 8 | 1,680,000 | 0.195312 BTC | about 2040 |
The halvings continue until the reward falls below one satoshi (0.00000001 BTC). That happens at block 6,930,000, around the year 2140, after which miners earn fees only. See how many bitcoins there are.
Limitations
- The date is an estimate from an average block time. The block number is exact.
- The live height comes from one public explorer. If it's unreachable, the page falls back to an estimate and says so.
- Your clock and time zone set the date shown; the halving itself happens whenever block 1,050,000 is found, anywhere in the world.
Frequently asked questions
When is the next Bitcoin halving?
At block 1,050,000, expected around April 2028 if blocks keep arriving about every 10 minutes. The countdown above updates from the live block height.
What will the block reward be after the next halving?
1.5625 BTC per block, down from 3.125 BTC, plus transaction fees.
How often does the halving happen?
Every 210,000 blocks, which is roughly every four years.
When was the last halving?
April 20, 2024 (UTC), at block 840,000. The reward fell from 6.25 to 3.125 BTC.
Does the halving affect my bitcoin?
No. Coins you already own aren't changed in any way. The halving only changes how many new coins miners receive per block.
Will the price go up after the halving?
Nobody knows. Past halvings were followed by both rises and big falls, and four examples are far too few to make a rule.
Where to next
Sources
- Controlled supply: halving schedule and block heights (Bitcoin Wiki)
- Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System, section 6 (bitcoin.org)
- Difficulty (Bitcoin Wiki)
- mempool.space block explorer (live block height)
- Bitcoin halving history (CoinMarketCap Academy)
- Coin Metrics free daily network data, PriceUSD (GitHub archive, CC BY-NC 4.0)
Written for beginners and checked against the sources listed. Last reviewed November 4, 2026. This page is educational and is not financial, tax or legal advice. How we write and check pages.