What Is Hashprice? Mining's Most Useful Number
Short answer: Hashprice is the USD value one unit of hashrate earns per day at current coin price, difficulty and block reward. It is usually quoted per petahash per day and shows whether mining or a contract can pay.
If you spend any time around mining, you will meet the word hashprice. It is the single number that converts "how much does hashrate earn?" into a plain dollar figure, and it is the fastest way to tell whether a contract, a hosted miner or a pool is worth your money. This guide explains what it is, how it is built, and how to use it without being misled.
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What hashprice means
Hashprice is the expected revenue from one unit of hashrate over a set period, expressed in US dollars. For Bitcoin it is usually quoted as USD per petahash per second per day (USD/PH/day), because the network's total hashrate is measured in exahashes and petahashes; this site's live table quotes USD per TH/s per day so that coins on different algorithms stay comparable (one PH/s is a thousand TH/s). If hashprice is $40/PH/day, then one petahash of hashrate is expected to earn about forty dollars of Bitcoin in a day, before costs.
The metric is a convenience wrapper, not a protocol value. It rolls three moving parts into one number: the coin price, the network difficulty, and the block reward (including transaction fees). Hashrate Index publishes a widely used public index [1], and you can watch the raw inputs - difficulty, estimated network hashrate and fee levels - change on the mempool.space mining dashboard [2].
How it is calculated
The arithmetic is straightforward once you know the pieces.
- Block reward. Each Bitcoin block pays a fixed subsidy plus the fees of its transactions. The subsidy halves roughly every four years, so the same hashrate earns less coin over time [4].
- Network difficulty. This adjusts about every two weeks so that blocks keep arriving at roughly ten-minute intervals. More total hashrate means higher difficulty and a smaller share for you.
- Your share. Your hashrate divided by the network's total hashrate gives your expected fraction of blocks, and therefore of rewards.
Hashprice is that expected coin revenue multiplied by the coin price, then normalised to a standard unit such as one petahash per day. Because all three inputs move, hashprice changes continuously. A rise in the coin price lifts it; a rise in difficulty pushes it down.
Why hashprice is the right lens
Hashprice lets you compare things that otherwise speak different languages. A cloud mining contract quotes dollars per terahash, an ASIC host quotes cents per kilowatt-hour, and a hashrate marketplace quotes a price per petahash-day. Convert each to the same axis - net dollars per unit of hashrate per day - and the comparison becomes obvious.
It also exposes the risk that marketing hides. Hashprice tends to fall as an industry adds machines, which is precisely why a fixed hosting cost becomes more dangerous over a long term. A contract that looks break-even at today's hashprice may be deeply negative in a year if difficulty rises and the coin price does not. This is the core argument in is cloud mining profitable?, and the reason our mining calculator lets you apply a difficulty-growth scenario rather than a single flat number.
How to use it in practice
Use hashprice as the first filter, then subtract costs.
- Find the current hashprice for the coin you are considering, from a live index [1] or your own calculation from public network data [2].
- Convert your offer to hashprice units. A contract selling 10 TH/s is 0.01 PH/s, so multiply the hashprice by 0.01 to get its gross daily revenue.
- Subtract the daily maintenance, hosting or power cost. What is left is the daily margin.
- Compare the total margin over the term with the price you paid. That is the break-even test.
- Repeat with hashprice falling by 30 to 50 percent to see how much room for error the deal has.
The same number works on the supply side. If you are considering hosting your own miner, the hashprice tells you the revenue ceiling; the power rate and fee determine what you keep. Braiins publishes mining dashboards and profitability references that many operators use for the same purpose [3]. For the difference between renting capacity and simply buying the coin, see cloud mining vs buying the coin, and browse live offers under mining and hashrate markets.
The bottom line
Hashprice is revenue per unit of hashrate, not profit, and it drifts down as miners compete. Used honestly - with costs subtracted and difficulty modelled - it is the clearest number in mining and the quickest way to reject a bad offer. Used as a slogan, it flatters any seller. Check the live value, do the subtraction yourself, and judge the offer on the margin it leaves you.
FAQ
What is hashprice in one sentence?
It is the dollar value of the coin that one unit of hashrate earns per day, after accounting for the current coin price, network difficulty and block reward.
Is hashprice the same as mining profitability?
No. Hashprice is revenue, not profit. To get profit you subtract your costs - electricity, hosting or a maintenance fee. Two miners can share a hashprice and have completely different profits.
Why does hashprice fall over time?
More machines joining the network raise difficulty, so the same hashrate wins a smaller share of each block. Halvings cut the block reward every few years. Both push the revenue per unit of hashrate down unless the coin price rises faster.
How do I use hashprice to judge a cloud mining contract?
Compare it with the contract's daily cost per unit plus its maintenance fee. If the fee is close to the hashprice, the contract loses money even if the coin price holds. Model a falling hashprice as well.
Where can I see live hashprice?
Our hashprice page tracks it from public network data, and Hashrate Index publishes a widely used index. The underlying inputs are visible on any public mining dashboard.
Ready to pick a provider? The comparison table has the live values, the finder narrows them down:
Sources
- Hashrate Index - hashprice index and explanation - accessed 2026-09-24
- mempool.space - mining dashboard (difficulty, hashrate, fees) - accessed 2026-09-24
- Braiins - mining pool and profitability reference - accessed 2026-09-24
- Bitcoin Wiki - controlled supply and halvings - accessed 2026-09-24