How many bitcoins are there?
A live count of the bitcoins created so far, why it stops at 21 million, how many are probably lost, and when the last one gets mined.
About 20.11 million bitcoins have been created as of November 2026, out of a fixed maximum of 21 million. Fewer than 900,000 remain to be mined, released more and more slowly until about the year 2140. Analysts estimate 3 to 3.7 million of the coins already mined are lost for good.
- Maximum ever
- 21,000,000 BTC
- Share already created
- 95.75%
- Left to be mined
- 891,838 BTC
- Current block height
- 974,611
- New bitcoins per block
- 3.125 BTC
- New bitcoins per day (about)
- 450 BTC
Estimated from block 974,611 (November 4, 2026) at one block every 10 minutes. Loading the live block height…
The 21 million limit
No rule in Bitcoin says "21 million" directly. The limit comes from the reward schedule: the first 210,000 blocks paid 50 BTC each (10.5 million BTC), the next 210,000 paid 25 (5.25 million), then 12.5, and so on, each era half the one before. Add up the halves and the total gets closer and closer to 21 million without passing it. Because rewards are paid in whole satoshis and the halving rounds down, the true maximum is just under: 20,999,999.9769 BTC.
The limit can only change if the people who run Bitcoin's software all agree to change it, and that is widely seen as the one rule nobody would accept changing.
How many have been mined, and how it's counted
The figure at the top is calculated from the live block height: every block's reward added up, era by era. As of block 974,611 (November 4, 2026) it comes to about 20,108,162 BTC, or 95.8% of the maximum. The 20 millionth bitcoin was mined in March 2026.
The real spendable figure is a little lower. The 50 BTC in the very first ("genesis") block can't be spent, and a few early miners claimed slightly less than they were allowed. Coin Metrics, which counts actual coins, put the supply at 20,033,382 BTC on May 23, 2026, about 230 BTC below the theoretical count for the blocks mined by then.
Supply by halving era
| Era | Reward per block | New BTC in the era | Total at the end | Share of 21M |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2009–2012 | 50 BTC | 10,500,000 | 10,500,000 | 50.00% |
| 2012–2016 | 25 BTC | 5,250,000 | 15,750,000 | 75.00% |
| 2016–2020 | 12.5 BTC | 2,625,000 | 18,375,000 | 87.50% |
| 2020–2024 | 6.25 BTC | 1,312,500 | 19,687,500 | 93.75% |
| 2024–about 2028 | 3.125 BTC | 656,250 | 20,343,750 | 96.88% |
| about 2028–2032 | 1.5625 BTC | 328,125 | 20,671,875 | 98.44% |
| about 2032–2036 | 0.78125 BTC | 164,062 | 20,835,938 | 99.22% |
| about 2036–2040 | 0.390625 BTC | 82,031 | 20,917,969 | 99.61% |
Each era is 210,000 blocks. Dates for future eras are approximate. Totals are theoretical, before the small adjustments mentioned above.
When will the last bitcoin be mined?
Around the year 2140. The reward keeps halving until, at block 6,930,000, it would be less than one satoshi, so it becomes zero. After that, miners will be paid only by transaction fees. In practice the supply is almost complete long before then: about 99% of all bitcoin will exist by the mid-2030s.
How many bitcoins are lost?
Nobody knows exactly, because a coin that hasn't moved for years might be lost or might be held by a patient owner. These are estimates, not counts:
| Estimate | Amount | How it was made |
|---|---|---|
| Chainalysis, 2020 | About 3.7 million BTC (around 20% of the supply then) | Coins that hadn't moved in five or more years |
| Glassnode, 2020 (as reported by Decrypt) | About 3 million BTC | On-chain analysis of long-dormant coins |
| Coins linked to Satoshi Nakamoto | Roughly 750,000 to 1.1 million BTC | Researchers' analysis of early mining patterns; these coins have never moved |
The Satoshi estimate overlaps with the others. Lost coins still count in the 21 million, but nobody can spend them, so the number actually available is lower than the supply figure, possibly by several million.
Forgotten passwords, thrown-away hard drives, lost seed phrases and owners who died without passing on access. It's permanent: nobody can reset a Bitcoin key. Read how to protect a seed phrase and how to plan for inheritance.
You don't need a whole bitcoin: satoshis
Each bitcoin divides into 100,000,000 satoshis ("sats"), the smallest unit Bitcoin's ledger records. So the 21 million limit is really about 2.1 quadrillion sats. Prices of a few dollars buy thousands of sats. Convert with the BTC to sats converter, or see buying a fraction of a bitcoin.
Limitations
- The live figure is the theoretical issuance up to the current block, not an audited count of spendable coins.
- Lost-coin numbers are estimates from 2020 by analytics firms, made with different methods; they will have changed since.
- If the live block height can't load, the page estimates it from a recent block at 10 minutes per block and says so.
Frequently asked questions
How many bitcoins are there right now?
About 20.11 million as of November 2026, out of a maximum of 21 million. The live figure at the top of the page updates from the current block height.
How many bitcoins are left to mine?
Fewer than 900,000: about 891,838 as of November 2026. They'll be released more and more slowly until about 2140.
Can the 21 million limit change?
Only if nearly everyone running Bitcoin's software agreed to a change, which is considered extremely unlikely because the fixed supply is central to why people hold it.
How many bitcoins are lost forever?
Estimates range from about 3 to 3.7 million, but these are educated guesses from 2020 based on coins that haven't moved in years.
How many bitcoins does Satoshi own?
Researchers estimate Satoshi mined roughly 750,000 to 1.1 million BTC in 2009–2010. None of those coins has moved.
How many satoshis are in one bitcoin?
100,000,000.
Where to next
Sources
- Controlled supply (Bitcoin Wiki)
- Satoshi (unit) (Bitcoin Wiki)
- Bitcoin's mined supply hits 20 million (The Block, March 2026)
- Lost Bitcoin: 3.7 million Bitcoin are probably gone forever (Decrypt, on Chainalysis and Glassnode estimates)
- Satoshi Nakamoto (Wikipedia)
- Coin Metrics free daily network data, PriceUSD (GitHub archive, CC BY-NC 4.0)
- mempool.space block explorer (live block height)
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.