AntPool review 2026: fees, payouts, network share, KYC, who it fits

AntPool suits miners who want a large, long-running pool (second by blocks found this week) with PPS+, PPLNS, FPPS and solo options and a payout threshold they set themselves. It fits poorly if you need a published fee card, current documentation or easy verification from Russia, which its KYC guide lists among restricted countries.

POOL BTC is an independent comparison site for bitcoin mining pools and the services miners use. We are not AntPool and not a mining pool, and nothing here is investment advice. The facts below come from antpool.com, its help center and its user agreement, checked on 2026-10-18, plus block data from mempool.space and the third-party sources named in the text.

What is AntPool?

AntPool is a multi-coin mining pool at antpool.com. Its help center says it went live in August 2014. It runs a Smart Pool that moves SHA256 hashrate automatically between BTC, BCH and BSV, and it merge-mines Namecoin and Dogecoin. By blocks found, it is currently the second-largest bitcoin pool.

Ownership needs care. News coverage has long described AntPool as run by Bitmain, the ASIC maker. A Forkast report says Bitmain divested from AntPool, but we could not verify when or what the structure looks like today. The official pages we read do not name an owner.

Accounts have three levels: administrator, sub-account and miner. A read-only observer link in Settings > Configure > Observer link lets a host or partner watch hashrate without touching anything.

One warning applies to the whole review. The help center articles we opened carry a "3 years ago" label, search results date them to April 2022, and some still mention Antminer S7 and S9. Treat anything from the help center as possibly out of date.

How much does AntPool charge?

We could not find an official fee figure. AntPool's help article "Miners Settings & Fees" lists the payout schemes but gives no percentages. Search snippets of that page show 4% on PPS+ (the default), 0% on PPLNS and 1% on solo for BTC. Third parties quote 2.5% or 2%. Read the live rate in your account dashboard before you point hashrate at the pool.

Our own site is not consistent either: the pool table shows 4%, while another of our pages says AntPool does not publish its fee. So 4% is the PPS+ rate that keeps appearing in snippets, but the official page we opened today does not show it, and the home page has no figures at all. The user agreement, section 1.3, says fees follow "charging standards" on a web page it does not name.

The help article does explain the schemes. FPPS, in effect since July 13, 2020, pays a fixed block reward plus the transaction fees of the block package, and pool luck does not affect it. PPS pays per share. PPLNS pays by the last N shares, so income depends on blocks found. The article promises "four payment methods" and lists three. Our guide to payout schemes explains how they differ.

For other coins, snippets give LTC 3% on PPS, 0% on PPLNS and 1% on solo, and the dedicated Kaspa pool 0.5% on PPLNS with daily KAS payouts.

What are AntPool's payout rules?

You set the minimum payout yourself. One help article gives a BTC default of 0.005 BTC, another gives 0.01 BTC and a lowest settable value of 0.001 BTC. AntPool processes all accounts at 9 o'clock every day, with no time zone stated. If your balance crosses the threshold after settlement, the payout goes out the next day.

Coin Bureau also mentions a published notice about a 0.0005 BTC threshold. We did not read it, so check what the settings field accepts.

Without a wallet address, earnings accumulate on your balance. Payout history shows the mode of each entry (PPS, PPLNS or PPS+) and exports to Excel. To see what a few points of fee mean in coins at your hashrate, use our mining calculator.

Who is AntPool a good fit for, and who should skip it?

AntPool fits miners who want a large, established pool with several payout schemes and many coins, and farms that need sub-accounts and read-only links for partners. It fits less well if you want a fee you can check before signing up, current documentation, or simple verification from Russia and the other listed countries.

A good fit:

• Miners who want to pick between PPS+, PPLNS, FPPS and solo, as long as they confirm the rate in the dashboard.
• Farms that split machines across sub-accounts and give their host an observer link.
• Scrypt miners, since LTC and DOGE are merge-mined in one account.

A weaker fit:

• Miners who choose a pool on fee alone. Luxor publishes 2.5% FPPS in its docs; see our Luxor review.
• Miners who care about decentralization: AntPool and Foundry USA together found about 46% of last week's blocks.
• Citizens or residents of countries on the KYC guide's restricted list.

Which countries can use AntPool, and is KYC required?

Yes, KYC is part of signing up. New users see a verification pop-up until they confirm identity with a passport or ID card and a live capture, and they must be 18 or older. AntPool's KYC guide lists restricted countries, including Russia, Belarus, mainland China and Iran. For Argentina and the rest of Latin America we found no named restriction.

The guide cites UN, US and Singapore sanctions, capital and bank sanctions, and mainland China as grounds. It names Russia, Mainland China, Belarus, Iran, Syria, Cuba, North Korea, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, Venezuela, the Philippines and Korea. Ukraine is not named.

The guide describes verification rules. A citizen of a restricted country who lives in a country that is not restricted has to provide proof of residence. It does not say outright that people from these countries cannot register, and it does not describe what happens to someone who lives in a listed country. If that is you, ask support before moving a farm and keep a backup pool configured.

The user agreement has no country list. You declare that you are not under OFAC, UN, EU, UK, HKMA or MAS sanctions and that you follow your own country's law on virtual currency. AntPool may restrict or suspend access if it suspects a violation. Singapore law and SIAC arbitration apply.

Russia's 2024 law puts AML and identification duties on miners and pool participants; that is Russian regulation, not an AntPool rule. In October 2021, Forkast reported that AntPool blocked IP access from mainland China and announced KYC.

How safe is AntPool?

Payout address changes need email confirmation, and AntPool can lock an address for account security. We found no help center article on 2FA, API keys or address whitelists. Unlocking a locked address means emailing support a photo of your ID and a photo of you holding it. Earnings stay on the pool balance until the daily payout.

You change the address in Settings, and AntPool sends an email titled "ANTPOOL Account Modify" with a confirmation link. To unlock, you write to support@antpool.com with the sub-account name, the coin and both photos. Sending ID photos by email is a privacy cost worth weighing.

We would set the payout address right after creating the sub-account, share observer links instead of the login, and look for 2FA in the account settings, since the help center does not mention it.

How do you start mining on AntPool?

Register on antpool.com, pass the verification pop-up, create a sub-account and point your miner at the stratum address with a worker name in the sub-account.minerID format. Then set and confirm a payout address and a minimum payout. The BTC tutorial gives ss.antpool.com, while older Bitmain pages show stratum.antpool.com, so copy the address from your dashboard.

1. Register at antpool.com.
2. Complete the identity verification pop-up that new accounts see.
3. Create a sub-account.
4. In your miner's web panel, set the pool to stratum+tcp://ss.antpool.com:3333. The tutorial also lists ports 443 and 25.
5. Set the worker as sub-account.minerID.
6. In Settings, add a payout address, confirm it through the email and set your minimum payout.

How big is AntPool's share of the Bitcoin network?

AntPool found 240 of 1,070 blocks in the week to 2026-10-18, a 22.43% share and second place behind Foundry USA. It also ranks second over one month and three months. These shares are our own calculation from mempool.space block counts: AntPool's blocks divided by all blocks in the period.

The top five is the same in all three windows: Foundry USA, AntPool, F2Pool, ViaBTC and SpiderPool. Foundry and AntPool together found 494 of 1,070 blocks last week, about 46.2%, and 44.8% over three months. Two pools finding close to half the blocks is a concentration risk for the network.

What are the risks of mining with AntPool?

The main risks are unclear terms rather than technology. The official page we opened shows no fee, the help center is about three years old, KYC lists Russia among restricted countries, and unlocking a payout address means emailing ID photos. Block concentration and Bitmain's past add to the list.

• Unpublished fee. The official article gives schemes without percentages, and other sources disagree on the rate.
• Dated help center. The minimum payout and stratum host differ between pages.
• KYC country list. The user agreement also lets AntPool suspend access on suspicion of a violation.
• Centralization. Foundry USA and AntPool found about 46.2% of last week's blocks.
• Bitmain history. In 2018 Bitmain faced AsicBoost claims, which it denied, and a report that year said AntPool had stopped mining SegWit blocks.

How does AntPool compare with Foundry USA, F2Pool and ViaBTC?

All four sit in the top five by blocks. Foundry USA is larger and, like AntPool, has no public fee card; it pays FPPS with a 0.01 BTC minimum. F2Pool and ViaBTC are quoted at 4% on FPPS or PPS+ and 2% on PPLNS. ViaBTC withdraws automatically from 0.001 BTC once a day.

The rows for Foundry USA, F2Pool and ViaBTC are a third-party snapshot from a Coin Bureau comparison dated 2026-05-14, not read from the pools' official pages. Other sources give F2Pool 2.5% PPS+ and a 0.001 BTC minimum. Our own site table lists 4% for both ViaBTC and F2Pool. Shares are our calculation from last week's mempool.space counts. We compare the first three pools in AntPool vs Foundry USA vs F2Pool.

FAQ

What fee does AntPool charge for bitcoin?

The official help article we opened lists PPS, PPLNS and FPPS without percentages. Search snippets show 4% on PPS+, 0% on PPLNS and 1% on solo, and third parties quote 2.5% or 2%. Check the rate in your dashboard.

What is AntPool's minimum BTC payout?

You set it yourself. One help article gives a default of 0.005 BTC, another gives 0.01 BTC with 0.001 BTC as the lowest setting. Payouts run daily at 9 o'clock.

Does AntPool require KYC?

Yes. New users confirm identity with a passport or ID and a live capture, and must be 18 or older.

Can I mine on AntPool from Russia or Argentina?

Russia is on the restricted-country list in AntPool's KYC guide, which describes verification rules rather than an outright ban. For Argentina and Latin America we found no named restriction.

Who owns AntPool?

The official pages we read do not say. News coverage describes it as run by Bitmain, and a Forkast report says Bitmain divested, but we could not verify the date or current structure.

Is AntPool worth it in 2026?

For a farm that wants a large pool, sub-accounts, observer links and a choice of PPS+, PPLNS, FPPS or solo, AntPool is worth a look, provided the fee in the dashboard works for you. If you want a fee you can read before signing up, current docs, or you live in a country on the KYC list, look elsewhere first.

If it fits, register on AntPool, read the fee for your chosen scheme in the dashboard, point one machine at the stratum address shown there and wait for the first daily payout before moving the rest.

This article contains referral links to mining pools (marked as sponsored). We may receive a reward if you register through them. This does not change the figures or the order of rows in the tables: the terms are taken from the pools' official pages.