Cost of Owning

GPU Mining Profitability Calculator

Mining profitability comes down to one comparison: what the card earns versus what the electricity costs. This calculator shows the honest daily number, the yearly number, and how many months it takes a card to pay for itself — if it ever does.

Updated September 2026 · Free · No sign-up

Estimate GPU mining profit

Net profit
—
Line itemAmount

Coin prices move daily. Check current gross revenue on a live calculator before trusting any single day's numbers.

How the math works

The calculator runs four numbers against each other. Gross revenue is what the card earns per day at current coin prices, which any live mining calculator can tell you. Uptime discounts that for restarts and maintenance — nobody runs 100%. Pool and payout fees take their cut, typically 1 to 2 percent. Electricity charges the card for every hour it runs, whether or not the coins it earned that day were worth anything.

The formula: net per day = gross × uptime × (1 − fees) − watts ÷ 1000 × 24 × uptime × rate. Break-even is the card price divided by monthly net. If monthly net is negative, the card never pays for itself — the calculator says so instead of pretending.

Where the defaults come from

Card prices reflect typical late-2026 US street pricing — note that a late-2025 memory shortage pushed real prices above MSRP on several models, and flagship 5090s have listed far above their $1,999 MSRP. Power draw is each card's board power under mining load. The default revenue matches WhatToMine's late-September 2026 snapshot for a mainstream card, which is currently inflated by the Pearl (PRL) spike — check the live number yourself before trusting any single day. The electricity default of 18.3¢ is the EIA's US residential average from its July 2026 Electric Power Monthly; your real rate is on your utility bill, and it is the single biggest lever in the whole calculation.

What the calculator does not include

It prices the card only — not the PSU, risers, fans, or the frame of a multi-card rig, which add $150 to $400 per build. It does not depreciate the card. A card mined on 24/7 for two years is worth less at resale than a gaming card the same age; if you count on selling the card afterward, shave 20 to 30 percent off your assumed resale. It also ignores heat and noise, which are free until you live with them.

Next steps

If the numbers work at your rate, the next question is GPU versus ASIC — see our Antminer cost and profitability guide for the other side of that comparison. If they don't work, the same hardware can earn differently: renting your GPU for AI workloads pays by the hour instead of by the block, and the GPU rental income calculator runs that math.

Frequently asked questions

Is GPU mining profitable in 2026?
Briefly, it is again — with an asterisk. In late September 2026 a new coin (Pearl) pushed mainstream cards' revenue to levels where even a mid-range card nets $2 to $3 a day after electricity at the US average rate. But new-coin spikes fade as hashrate arrives, and for most of the cycle GPU revenue runs a fraction of spike levels. The honest plan: enjoy spike math if you already own the card, but stress-test any purchase at half the current revenue before you spend money on hardware.
How much does a GPU make per day mining?
Late-September 2026 snapshot from WhatToMine: an RTX 4060 grosses about $1.50 per day, an RTX 5070 about $3.20, an RTX 5090 about $8.70 — before electricity. At the US average residential rate of 18.3¢ per kWh, subtract roughly $0.70 for the 5070 and $1.85 for the 5090 over 24 hours.
What electricity rate makes GPU mining worth it?
At the current revenue spike, even the 18.3¢ national average leaves a margin — which is exactly what makes the spike dangerous as a purchase signal. Durable profitability, the kind that survives the spike fading, historically needs power under about 10¢ per kWh, and under 6¢ to be genuinely comfortable.
Does mining ruin a graphics card?
It ages fans and thermal pads first; the silicon itself usually outlasts them. Cards mined on 24/7 for two years tend to need new fans and a repaste, which is a $30 to $60 service. The bigger financial hit is depreciation: a used mining card sells for less than a used gaming card.