Can you still mine Bitcoin at home?
Yes, anyone can still mine. Whether it's worth it is a different question. Here are the real odds for a laptop, a USB stick miner, a small home miner and a big ASIC.
Yes, anyone can still run Bitcoin mining software, but with the whole network at roughly 969 EH/s (October 2026), a home computer will essentially never find a block. Only specialized ASIC machines compete, and even they need cheap electricity to profit. Small "lottery" miners are a fun long shot, not income.
Why home mining stopped paying
Bitcoin adjusts its mining difficulty about every two weeks so that a block is found roughly every 10 minutes, however much computing power joins. As more and faster machines joined, difficulty climbed. In the early years a laptop could earn bitcoin; since specialized chips called ASICs arrived, ordinary computers have had effectively no chance.
The odds, in numbers
| Device (rough hashrate) | Chance of a block per year | Expected wait |
|---|---|---|
| Laptop CPU (~0.02 GH/s) | about 1 in 900 million | about 900 million years |
| USB stick miner (~0.3 TH/s) | about 1 in 61,000 | about 61,000 years |
| Small home miner (~1 TH/s) | about 1 in 18,000 | about 18,000 years |
| Large ASIC (~200 TH/s) | about 1 in 93 | about 92 years |
At a network hashrate of 969 EH/s. Check your own numbers with the solo mining odds calculator.
The prize is big: a block pays 3.125 BTC plus fees. Small solo miners do occasionally win, which is why "lottery mining" exists. But like a lottery ticket, the average outcome is a loss once you count electricity.
Ways to mine today
- Pool mining. You join a pool that combines thousands of miners and splits each reward by the work you contributed. You get small, steady payouts; the pool takes a fee. This is how almost all miners operate.
- Solo or lottery mining. You mine alone and keep the whole reward if you ever find a block. Small open-source home miners and USB stick miners are popular for this, mostly as a hobby.
- Cloud mining. You pay a company to mine for you. Many cloud mining offers are scams that pay early "returns" from new deposits and then vanish. Be very wary, and see how to check a platform.
What a real ASIC setup costs
A competitive ASIC uses about as much power as a large space heater running all day, is loud enough that most people keep it in a garage or basement, and gives off a lot of heat. Profit depends on the price of bitcoin, the difficulty and above all your electricity price. Mining's reward also halves roughly every four years (most recently in April 2024), so a machine's earnings fall over time unless the price rises.
What about mining other coins with a GPU?
Graphics cards used to mine Ether, but Ethereum switched to proof of stake in September 2022 and no longer uses miners. The coins still mineable with GPUs are much smaller and usually earn little after electricity. Any website promising big mining profits from a laptop, phone or browser is a red flag.
Frequently asked questions
Can I mine Bitcoin on my PC?
You can run the software, but a PC's chance of finding a block is effectively zero, and the electricity costs more than any average earnings.
What is solo mining?
Mining on your own rather than in a pool. If you find a block you keep the whole reward (3.125 BTC plus fees), but small miners may wait thousands of years on average.
Is Bitcoin mining still profitable?
For large operations with cheap power and efficient ASICs, it can be. For home miners paying normal household electricity prices, it usually isn't.
Is cloud mining legit?
Some services are real, but cloud mining is a common scam format. Never pay to unlock a withdrawal, and check any company with your regulator first.
Where to next
Sources
- Difficulty (Bitcoin Wiki)
- Bitcoin mining hashrate stabilizes at 969 EH/s on Oct 2 (Pickaxe)
- The Merge (ethereum.org)
- What to know about cryptocurrency and scams (FTC)
Written for beginners and checked against the sources listed. Last reviewed October 26, 2026. This page is educational and is not financial, tax or legal advice. How we write and check pages.