<p>It depends on your specific valuation of "worth it."</p>

<p>By most valuations (i.e. value of BTC produced > electricity costs) it is not, but if you don't pay for electricity it might be. It might also be worth it to you to mine at a loss if you truly believe that 1 BTC might be worth thousands someday.</p>

<p>Realistically, though, it is probably more worthwhile to simply purchase BTC at an exchange or from another user.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2011-08-30T22:03:20.103Z
How can I calculate my expected return (in BTC) based on my CPU speed (assuming I also have other applications using my CPU). Or should this be another question.
nopcorn
CC BY-SA 3.0
2011-09-01T12:38:25.680Z
@MaxMackie check [How much Bitcoin will I mine right now with hardware X?](http://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/questions/118/how-much-bitcoin-will-i-mine-right-now-with-hardware-x)
nmat
CC BY-SA 3.0
2011-08-30T21:58:24.287Z
2011-08-30T21:58:24.287Z
David Perry
<p>I'm in a mining pool, using several multi-core servers and generating about 7-10Mhashes/second.  It has yielded me currently about $0.01 dollars in the last 36 hours.  I do not pay for electricity.  I made a penny.  It's not that exciting. :) There are GPUs that can accumulate my MHash rate that I create across several CPUs, without even getting warm.  So my guess, based on my experience, is "no"</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2011-09-21T15:48:45.720Z
2011-09-21T15:56:19.487Z
2011-09-21T15:56:19.487Z
user460
<p>In addition to Tenebrix and Fairbrix (<a href="https://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/a/1422/516">as mentioned</a> by phelix), <a href="http://litecoin.org/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Litecoin</a> also is designed to be mined by CPU. At the time of writing, it might even provide adequate return to cover the cost of power in some cases.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-08-13T02:47:57.563Z
2012-08-13T02:47:57.563Z
2017-04-13T12:47:36.647Z
Highly Irregular
<p>CPU mining is only worth it if you are not paying for your electricity.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2011-08-30T22:01:01.463Z
2011-08-30T22:01:01.463Z
tysat
<p>use this calculator <a href="http://www.coinish.com/calc/" rel="nofollow">http://www.coinish.com/calc/</a>
I think it will answer your question perfectly
use 'expert' mode for most accurate results (never 100% correct, that's impossible)</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-06-23T22:18:01.370Z
2013-06-23T22:18:01.370Z
Ori
<p>All the mining pools I tried required you to have .01 BTC in credits before withdrawing. With a CPU at the current rate, this could easily take a year to reach. And as the difficulty continues to rise, there's a large chance that you would <strong>never</strong> reach this .01 BTC threshold. So unless you're doing something like operating a botnet, the answer is "no". And even with a botnet, there are more profitable things you could be doing.</p>

<p>That said, do tell me if you happen to find a pool that has a smaller (or no) payment threshold.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-06-22T06:35:46.023Z
2013-06-22T06:35:46.023Z
Ponkadoodle
<p>The forks Tenebrix and Fairbrix are designed to give an advantage to CPUs. It might be more profitable to CPU mine them than Bitcoin or other GPU-algorithm forks.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2011-10-08T09:08:14.790Z
2011-10-08T09:08:14.790Z
kermit
<p>For the amount of time you would spend setting up a CPU miner, at minimum wage in the US you would be at a loss.</p>

<p>Even GPU mining is barely profitable for most people right now. It would definitely be more profitable to speculate, and even more profitable to operate a Bitcoin business. There are a great deal of people who want to use their Bitcoins for purchases.</p>

<p>At the current exchange of under $10:1BTC, the most efficient graphics cards are taking months to pay off their initial investment (with free electricity).</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-12-05T20:44:54.963Z
Is CPU mining worth it now at $1000:1BTC?
SliverNinja - MSFT
CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-12-09T09:22:48.290Z
@SliverNinja +1. What have you found out so far?
Jürgen Paul
CC BY-SA 3.0
2011-08-30T22:04:16.000Z
2011-08-30T22:04:16.000Z
Alex Waters
<p>I would like to start mining, but my GPU isn't the greatest and I don't really want to spend the money on a dedicated rig. Is mining from my CPU (in a Linux environment) still worth it? Or will I not be able to keep up?</p>

<linux><mining-profitability><cpu-mining>
Is CPU mining even worth it?
nopcorn
# Is CPU mining even worth it?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2011-08-30)

I would like to start mining, but my GPU isn't the greatest and I don't really want to spend the money on a dedicated rig. Is mining from my CPU (in a Linux environment) still worth it? Or will I not be able to keep up?

**Tags:** linux, mining-profitability, cpu-mining


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## 8 answers

### Answer by username_9 on 2011-08-30. Score: 25 | Accepted answer

For the amount of time you would spend setting up a CPU miner, at minimum wage in the US you would be at a loss.

Even GPU mining is barely profitable for most people right now. It would definitely be more profitable to speculate, and even more profitable to operate a Bitcoin business. There are a great deal of people who want to use their Bitcoins for purchases.

At the current exchange of under $10:1BTC, the most efficient graphics cards are taking months to pay off their initial investment (with free electricity).

> **Comments:**
> **username_10**: Is CPU mining worth it now at $1000:1BTC?  
> **username_11**: @SliverNinja +1. What have you found out so far?  

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### Answer by username_1 on 2011-08-30. Score: 13

It depends on your specific valuation of "worth it."

By most valuations (i.e. value of BTC produced > electricity costs) it is not, but if you don't pay for electricity it might be. It might also be worth it to you to mine at a loss if you truly believe that 1 BTC might be worth thousands someday.

Realistically, though, it is probably more worthwhile to simply purchase BTC at an exchange or from another user.

> **Comments:**
> **username_0**: How can I calculate my expected return (in BTC) based on my CPU speed (assuming I also have other applications using my CPU). Or should this be another question.  
> **username_2**: @MaxMackie check [How much Bitcoin will I mine right now with hardware X?](http://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/questions/118/how-much-bitcoin-will-i-mine-right-now-with-hardware-x)  

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### Answer by username_3 on 2011-09-21. Score: 9

I'm in a mining pool, using several multi-core servers and generating about 7-10Mhashes/second. It has yielded me currently about $0.01 dollars in the last 36 hours. I do not pay for electricity. I made a penny. It's not that exciting. :) There are GPUs that can accumulate my MHash rate that I create across several CPUs, without even getting warm. So my guess, based on my experience, is "no"


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### Answer by username_4 on 2012-08-13. Score: 2

In addition to Tenebrix and Fairbrix ([as mentioned](https://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/a/1422/516) by phelix), [Litecoin](http://litecoin.org/) also is designed to be mined by CPU. At the time of writing, it might even provide adequate return to cover the cost of power in some cases.


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### Answer by username_5 on 2011-08-30. Score: 0

CPU mining is only worth it if you are not paying for your electricity.


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### Answer by username_6 on 2013-06-23. Score: 0

use this calculator <http://www.coinish.com/calc/>
I think it will answer your question perfectly
use 'expert' mode for most accurate results (never 100% correct, that's impossible)


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### Answer by username_7 on 2013-06-22. Score: 0

All the mining pools I tried required you to have .01 BTC in credits before withdrawing. With a CPU at the current rate, this could easily take a year to reach. And as the difficulty continues to rise, there's a large chance that you would **never** reach this .01 BTC threshold. So unless you're doing something like operating a botnet, the answer is "no". And even with a botnet, there are more profitable things you could be doing.

That said, do tell me if you happen to find a pool that has a smaller (or no) payment threshold.


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### Answer by username_8 on 2011-10-08. Score: 0

The forks Tenebrix and Fairbrix are designed to give an advantage to CPUs. It might be more profitable to CPU mine them than Bitcoin or other GPU-algorithm forks.


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