FPPS, PPS+, PPLNS: which payout scheme pays more in 2026

Over a long enough horizon every honest pool pays roughly the same expected income per terahash, because all pools split the same network reward. The payout scheme changes who carries the risk of bad luck and how much the pool charges for carrying it. FPPS gives the steadiest daily number and costs the most in fees. PPLNS bounces around but charges less, so a patient miner keeps a slightly larger share. PPS+ sits between the two. The real gap between schemes at most pools is 1 to 3 percentage points of fee, which at 100 TH/s works out to roughly $12 to $36 a year. Electricity, hardware efficiency, and network difficulty move the result far more than the choice of acronym.

What problem does a payout scheme solve?

A payout scheme answers one question: who pays for bad luck. Your ASIC sends thousands of shares per hour to the pool. The pool finds blocks, collects the 3.125 BTC subsidy plus transaction fees, and splits the total among miners in proportion to their shares, minus the pool's own cut. The scheme is the formula for that split, and the important part is what happens when blocks take longer than expected to show up.

Some schemes guarantee payment per share regardless of blocks. Others pay only when a block is actually found. That fork drives every difference that follows.

What is FPPS and what does it cost?

FPPS (Full Pay Per Share) pays a fixed rate for every accepted share. The rate covers both the block subsidy and a share of network transaction fees, averaged over a recent window. Whether the pool found zero blocks today or five, your daily income stays about the same. The pool absorbs the variance and charges a higher fee for it.

From pool data verified as of August 2026: Foundry USA runs FPPS but does not publish a single fee (it is tiered and negotiated by application with KYC). F2Pool charges 4% on its FPPS mode. Luxor charges 2.5%. EMCD charges 4%. Promminer charges 3%. Binance Pool charges 4%. Tpool charges 0.9%. Neopool runs FPPS but does not publicly disclose its fee.

FPPS is the market standard at large BTC pools in 2026.

What is PPS+ and how is it different from FPPS?

PPS+ pays the block subsidy at a fixed per-share rate (same as PPS), but distributes the transaction-fee portion only when the pool actually finds blocks (similar to PPLNS for that slice). The base income is guaranteed. The top-up from transaction fees floats with pool luck.

At average pool luck over several months, PPS+ and FPPS land in roughly the same place. During an unlucky stretch FPPS pays more (it smoothed the fees). During a lucky stretch PPS+ pays more (the actual fees beat the average the FPPS pool used).

From pool data verified August 2026: Trustpool runs PPS+ at 1%. Kryptex Pool runs PPS+ at 3%. ViaBTC offers PPS+ or PPLNS at 4%. AntPool offers a choice of FPPS, PPS, and PPLNS at 4%.

What is PPLNS and why does it bounce?

PPLNS (Pay Per Last N Shares) pays only when the pool finds a block. The reward is split among miners in proportion to the shares they submitted during a recent window of the last N shares. No block found this week means no payment this week. Three blocks in quick succession means a triple helping.

The N-window size varies by pool, and most major pools do not publish the exact number. The design punishes pool-hopping: joining a pool, your shares have to fill the window before you earn a full portion; leaving, you abandon shares that keep working for a block you will not be paid for.

From pool data verified August 2026: ViaBTC charges 2% on its PPLNS mode. F2Pool charges 2% on PPLNS. AntPool offers PPLNS alongside its other modes at 4%.

Side-by-side: FPPS vs PPS+ vs PPLNS

Pool fee comparison table (BTC pools, verified August 2026)

Fees verified against official pool documentation as of August 2026. Terms change; verify at the pool before routing hashrate.

Which scheme actually earns more over a year?

Expected income barely depends on the scheme. Your slice of the network is the same wherever you point the machines. The scheme redistributes the timing of that income, not its size, and decides where transaction fees end up.

What genuinely moves the result, roughly in order:

1. Electricity tariff. The gap between $0.05 and $0.12 per kWh at 100 TH/s is about $2 a day.
2. Pool fee. The spread between a 0.9% pool and a 4% pool at 100 TH/s is about $0.10 a day, roughly $36 a year.
3. Transaction fee share (PPS vs FPPS). On the August 2026 snapshot, transaction fees ran at 0.70% of the subsidy. At 100 TH/s, about two cents a day, near $7 a year.
4. Payout threshold. At 100 TH/s a 0.005 BTC threshold fills in about 107 days, 0.001 BTC in about 21 days.

The payout scheme ranks roughly third for your wallet and first for your nerves. Run your own numbers in the mining profitability calculator.

How to pick a scheme for your setup

One ASIC at home. Take FPPS or PPS+ with a low payout threshold. A PPLNS drawdown at small hashrate looks exactly like a broken rig, and there is no reason to live with that. Tpool (0.9%, FPPS, 0.0001 BTC threshold) or Trustpool (1%, PPS+, 0.001 BTC) are the cheapest published options right now.

5 to 50 ASICs. The fee starts to matter in dollars. Compare the effective rate, not the label. F2Pool and ViaBTC charge 2% on PPLNS versus 4% on their FPPS/PPS+ modes, so if your hashrate can ride out the variance, PPLNS at 2% beats FPPS at 4% by about 2% of gross income.

Large farm, 1 PH/s and above. The public tariff becomes an opening position. Foundry USA and Neopool negotiate individually. At this scale the fee difference is a five-figure annual number, so push for the rate before picking the scheme label.

Solo. Not a payout scheme, a refusal to split. At 100 TH/s against roughly 926 EH/s of network hashrate (7-day avg, ~25.09.2026, coinwarz.com), the expected wait for a block is about 176 years. Solo makes sense only as a deliberate lottery. See the solo mining economics article.

Compare pools and their terms in the pool ranking and the ASIC profitability ranking.

What about TIDES (Ocean)?

TIDES is a PPLNS variant where payouts go straight from the block's coinbase transaction. The pool never holds your balance. The window is eight network difficulty blocks, and Ocean says 99.97% of shares land in at least one payout (source: ocean.xyz/docs/tides, verified August 2026). Ocean charges 2% standard, 1% via DATUM Gateway (ocean.xyz). The on-chain minimum payout threshold is 0.01048576 BTC; Lightning payouts via BOLT12 have no threshold.

For miners who want non-custodial payouts, TIDES removes counterparty risk. For everyone else, the PPLNS trade-offs (uneven income, long ramp-up) apply the same way.

What happens to my shares if the pool does not find a block?

Under FPPS and PPS+, nothing changes for you. You were already paid at the fixed per-share rate. Under PPLNS, your shares stay in the window and count toward the next block until they age out past N. Under SOLO, they are simply gone.

FAQ

Is PPLNS more profitable than FPPS in the long run?

At an equal pool fee the average difference is small. PPLNS more often appears at pools charging a lower rate (F2Pool 2%, ViaBTC 2%), and that fee gap is where any real edge comes from. You pay for it with uneven income and the share tail you leave behind when you switch pools.

Can I switch between schemes on the same pool without losing stats?

Switching typically does not reset your hashrate history or worker stats. It applies to new shares from the moment of the switch. Check with the specific pool whether there is a delay.

Which scheme is best when mempool fees are high?

Any scheme that passes transaction fees to the miner: FPPS, PPS+, PPLNS. Only pure PPS loses out, and pure PPS has nearly died out (only AntPool still offers it as of August 2026).

Why does my PPLNS income look inconsistent even though my hashrate has not changed?

That is normal. PPLNS pays based on blocks the pool actually finds, not a fixed rate per share. A steady hashrate does not guarantee steady daily income, though over months the average approaches expectation.

Does the scheme affect the risk of the pool not paying me?

Indirectly. Coinbase payouts like TIDES arrive straight from the block. In every other scheme the pool holds your balance until you hit the threshold. There, the pool's reputation and the threshold size matter more than the scheme label.

Where can I compare these pools myself?

The live pool ranking shows fees, schemes, and minimum payouts for all verified pools. The mining calculator lets you plug in your hashrate and electricity cost to see net income per pool.

Pool fees and schemes verified against official documentation as of August 2026. Network parameters from the 2026-08-14 snapshot. POOL BTC compares the published terms of other people's pools and does not accept hashrate. Figures are indicative and not financial advice.

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.