How to Mine Bitcoin on a PC and Phone in 2026: Is It Real and How Long to Mine 1 BTC
You can technically mine bitcoin on an ordinary PC or phone, but it will not earn money: income rounds to fractions of a cent per day, and getting to 1 BTC would take hundreds of thousands to millions of years. Bitcoin is mined by ASIC machines. Realistic options for a beginner: a Bitaxe as a roughly $100 lottery ticket, an ASIC with cheap power, or mining another coin such as Monero on a CPU.
| Device | What you get |
|---|---|
| Phone | Nothing. Most "mining apps" do not mine |
| PC (CPU, GPU) | Fractions of a cent a day, power costs more than income |
| Bitaxe (about $100) | A lottery: block odds of roughly 1 in 16,000 per year |
| Antminer S21 Pro ASIC | About $8.76 a day gross, a loss at $0.12 per kWh power |
Is it real in 2026
No, if "mining" means earning on an ordinary computer. Bitcoin runs on ASICs, chips that only do SHA-256 and do it orders of magnitude more efficiently than a CPU or GPU. On 21 October 2026 network difficulty is about 140.58T, the block subsidy is 3.125 BTC and network hashrate is roughly 1,050 to 1,100 EH/s depending on the tracker.
One number decides everything: BTC earned per day per 1 TH/s. After the 16 October 2026 retarget, 1 PH/s (1,000 TH/s) earns about 0.00044719 BTC per day before pool fees, subsidy only. That is 0.00000044719 BTC per day per TH/s. Transaction fees added about 0.57% on top of the subsidy over that epoch.
How long to mine 1 bitcoin: the math
Formula: years to 1 BTC = 1 / (hashrate in TH/s x 0.00000044719) / 365.25. This is an average expectation with no difficulty growth, no pool fee and no luck adjustment. The BTC price for the money columns is about $83,666 on 21 October 2026.
An important caveat: the "years to 1 BTC" figures use today's block reward and today's difficulty. The next halving is expected around 2028 and will cut the reward in half, and difficulty tends to rise over time. Real times will be longer.
| Device | Hashrate | BTC per day | Years to 1 BTC | Income per day | Power per day, $0.05 / $0.12 per kWh |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Phone (generous assumption) | about 1 GH/s | 0.00000000045 | about 6 million | about $0.00004 | fractions of a cent |
| Ryzen 9 9950X CPU | about 100 MH/s (estimate) | 0.000000000045 | about 61 million | about $0.000004 | $0.20 / $0.49 (170 W) |
| RTX 4090 GPU | about 11 GH/s (our estimate) | 0.0000000049 | about 557 thousand | about $0.0004 | $0.54 / $1.30 (450 W) |
| Bitaxe Gamma | 1.2 TH/s | 0.00000054 | about 5,100 | about $0.045 | $0.02 / $0.05 (about 17 W) |
| Antminer S21 Pro | 234 TH/s | 0.000105 | about 26 | about $8.76 | $4.21 / $10.11 (3,510 W) |
How to read the table:
- Bitaxe Gamma does about 1.2 TH/s at 17 W, and sellers list up to 1.3 TH/s. The S21 Pro does 234 TH/s at 3,510 W, about 15 J/TH.
- For the RTX 4090, benchmarks on single SHA-256 give roughly 22 GH/s. Bitcoin uses double SHA-256, so we take about half. Sources disagree by two orders of magnitude, but even the most generous figure changes nothing: hundreds of thousands of years.
- For the CPU and the phone there is no verifiable SHA-256 benchmark. The numbers are a deliberately generous order-of-magnitude estimate, and real results are worse.
- The S21 Pro row matches independent estimates: about $3.95 a day net at $0.05 per kWh and about minus $1.95 at $0.12. Our price and difficulty are newer, so the numbers differ slightly.
Electricity per 1 BTC on an S21 Pro, our math: about 9,556 days x 84.24 kWh, roughly 805,000 kWh. That is about $40,250 at $0.05 and about $96,600 at $0.12 per kWh, before the machine's price. An S21 Pro costs roughly $2,319 today. For the yearly trend see cost to mine 1 BTC by year, and run your own numbers in the calculator.
Can you mine bitcoin on a phone
No. A smartphone cannot deliver meaningful SHA-256 hashrate, and app stores restrict such apps. Apple's developer rules bar mining on the device itself and allow only cloud mining. Google Play also does not allow apps that mine on the device.
General warning signs that a "mining app" is not mining:
- promises a fixed daily income or a "guarantee";
- asks for a deposit, an "activation" or a withdrawal fee;
- pays for inviting friends, like a referral pyramid;
- shows a balance in the app that you cannot verify on the blockchain;
- no visible mining facility or legal entity;
- a very new domain.
Two or more of these means it is better to walk away. Well known scams have run under the "cloud mining" banner, including cases that ended in criminal convictions for the founders. Genuine mobile apps around mining usually just monitor hardware you already own and mine nothing themselves.
What a PC can mine
Not bitcoin, but other coins yes. Monero (XMR) uses RandomX, built for CPUs. By our article, a Ryzen 9 9950X earns about $1.10 a day before power at the early October 2026 price, about $0.89 net at $0.05 per kWh. Full guide, XMRig setup and pools: How to mine Monero on a CPU. GPUs mine other algorithms: the Minerstat tracker estimates an RTX 4090 at about $1.41 a day on Qhash, an estimate rather than a guarantee. It makes sense if you already own the hardware and power is cheap. Buying a PC just to mine rarely pays back.
How to start mining on a PC: where to begin
- Pick a goal. Earning: you need an ASIC and power under about $0.08 per kWh. Learning: a Bitaxe. Coins on home hardware: Monero on a CPU.
- Calculate payback before buying in the POOL BTC calculator and the ASIC ranking.
- Pick a pool for an ASIC using bitcoin mining in simple terms and read solo vs pool mining.
- Set up a payout wallet and check the address twice.
- For the lottery, point a Bitaxe at a solo pool.
The cheapest real path
| Path | Entry | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| Bitaxe Gamma | about $104 in the US, in the EU roughly €129 to €139 incl. VAT | A lottery: roughly 1 in 15,000 to 16,000 block odds per year, power about $18 to $45 a year |
| ASIC S21 Pro | about $2,319 | Profit at cheap power, a loss at a high tariff |
| ASIC hosting | price depends on the provider | No noisy machine at home |
The lottery sometimes pays: in July 2026 a solo miner on a Bitaxe found block 957,382 and received 3.1382 BTC. All such finds this year and the odds math: Solo bitcoin blocks in 2026. That is an exception, not a plan.
FAQ
How to mine bitcoin?
To mine bitcoin you need an ASIC miner, cheap electricity, a wallet and a pool. A CPU, GPU or phone earns less than a cent a day in 2026. To check any device, take its hashrate, multiply by 0.00000044719 BTC per day per TH/s, and subtract electricity.
How to mine crypto?
Match the coin to your hardware. Bitcoin needs an ASIC, Monero is built for CPUs, and GPUs mine coins on other algorithms such as Qhash. Calculate income and power first in the calculator, then install a miner and connect a pool. Our XMRig article covers Monero step by step.
Can you mine bitcoin?
Technically on any device, profitably only on an ASIC. Network hashrate is about 1,050 EH/s and your PC is invisible in it. A Bitaxe gives about 1 in 16,000 odds of a block per year. For income plan on an ASIC and a tariff under $0.08 per kWh.
How to mine bitcoin on a PC?
Directly on a PC it makes no sense: a CPU or GPU earns roughly $0.000004 to $0.0004 a day while power costs $0.20 to $1.30. Use the PC to manage an ASIC or Bitaxe, a pool and a wallet instead. For the PC itself, choose Monero on a CPU.
How to start mining on a PC?
Install XMRig, create a Monero wallet and join a pool such as SupportXMR or P2Pool. This is the one path where an ordinary computer earns a noticeable amount. Setup is in our Monero guide. For bitcoin, buy a Bitaxe or an ASIC and connect it to the network.
How long to mine 1 bitcoin?
About 5,100 years on a Bitaxe and about 26 years on an S21 Pro at the current difficulty and reward. On a PC it is hundreds of thousands to millions of years. After the halving around 2028 the reward halves and difficulty tends to rise, so reality is longer, and luck matters more than the math.
Can you mine bitcoin on a phone?
No. A phone has no meaningful SHA-256 hashrate, and mining apps are mostly ads, cloud contracts or scams. Apple allows only cloud mining and Google Play blocks on-device mining. Never pay a deposit and never trust guaranteed returns.
Is bitcoin mining profitable?
Only on an ASIC and at a tariff up to about $0.08 per kWh. At $0.12 the S21 Pro above loses about $1.36 a day, at $0.05 it nets about $4.54. Price and difficulty move, so recheck before buying. This is not investment advice.