You are going to need more than one CPU machine to mine 1 Monero per day. Currently, the most powerful Monero mining hardware will give you just over 0.03 XMR coins per day. So to mine 1 Monero coin in a day you will need 32 of these mining rigs. Let’s take a close look at the calculations
Understand Monero Mining Basics
Monero is a privacy-preserving cryptocurrency that uses a technology called ring signatures which makes it hard to trace.
The Monero blockchain is consistently in the top 30 coins by market capitalization and uses a proof of work mining algorithm just like Bitcoin.
Proof-of-work consensus algorithms work as follows:
In order for new blocks to get added to the blockchain network miners need to solve complex cryptographic puzzles.
The miner who solves the mathematical operation first receives a mining reward in the form of new coins.
In the case of Monero, miners receive 0.6 XMR tokens plus fees.
In order to mine Monero you need a CPU i.e. a computer processing unit. Basically, it is a souped-up version of what your laptop and phone run on.
Inputs that Affect Monero Mining Capacity
How much Monero you can mine depends on two things:
- The network difficulty i.e. how many hashes it takes to add a new block to the Monero blockchain
- How many hashes per second your machine can do? See here for what is a good hashrate for Monero mining.
How to calculate XMR mined per day
To do these calculations, I plugged the numbers into my Monero mining calculator.
To find how much XMR you can mine in a day you need to first calculate the network hashrate which you can find using the following formula:
Network Hashrate= Difficulty/block generation time.
The block generation time for Monero is 2 minutes and the current mining difficulty is 359,708,344,884.
Hence the Network Hashrate is:
359,708,344,884/120 seconds=2,997,569,541
Trust me.
Next, you need to find your share of the network hash rate by dividing your machine’s hashes per second by the network hash rate.
The most powerful Monero mining rig is the Bitmain X5 which can generate 212,000 H/s.
So your share will be:
212,000/2,997,569,541=0.00007072396391
A new block is rewarded with 0.6XMR plus fees which tend to be around 0.01XMR.
So your reward every 2 minutes will be:
0.00007072396391*0.61=0.00004314161
Multiply this by 30 to get the hourly rate and then by 24 to get the daily rate and you end up with:
0.00004314161*30*24=0.03106196495 XMR
Of course, mining XMR is only one side of the equation.
If you want to make money you need to understand how much it will cost to do so.
If you want to play around with the numbers yourself check out my post on the best XMR mining calculator where I share my spreadsheet and other Monero calculators you can use.
How Much Does it Cost to Generate 1 Monero?
Fixed costs
CPU
A Bitmain X5 costs about $3,700.
If you buy 32 of these then you are looking at an upfront cost of $118,400 in order to be able to mine 1 Monero per day given current inputs.
Of course, the network difficulty is dynamic.
If Monero miners drop out then network difficulty will adjust downwards whereas if more join it will move upwards.
But for the past 3 years, it has been hovering between 300 G and 400G which means you will need between 26 and 32 of these miners at any point in time to be able to mine a full Monero coin.
If you don’t have $120,000 lying around then you could consider a cloud mining service where you can rent the equipment at a data center for a monthly fee.
However, there are lots of scams in this space so I personally avoid cloud mining.
Peripherals:
Apart from the CPU you are going to need a motherboard, a PSU, a graphics card if your CPU doesn’t have one, RAM sticks (see here for guidance on what RAM to get) and an SSD card. All together these will set you back around $400.
Variable Costs
Power consumption
The biggest variable cost you need to consider is energy costs.
The lower you can get this the more of that Monero you can keep for yourself.
Large crypto-mining farms are usually able to procure electricity at 0.05 $/kWh but the average household in the US pays 0.20 $/kWh.
Average electricity costs Europe in Europe are even higher at 0.28 $/kWh. At those levels, your operation won’t be viable.
For more on this see How Profitable Is Monero CPU Mining where I crunch the numbers to show you why Mining XMR is simply not worth it.
Pool mining fees
The second variable cost will be the commissions you pay to the mining pool.
Monero mining pools charge between 1-2% subscription fees.
The alternative to joining a pool is to become a solo miner.
This is similar to playing the lottery because you only receive a reward when your miner solves the cryptographic puzzle first.
In all honesty, joining a pool is a better option if you plan to mine one XMR per day.
In any case, 1% in pool fees will not break the bank.
Cooling
Finally, if you live in a warmer climate to make those 32 CPUs last you are going to need some cooling equipment.
CPU miners come with their own fans but you will need to add your own cooling systems if their temperature exceeds 176 Fahrenheit / 80 Celsius.
Why You Should Not Be Aiming for 1 XMR per Day
I hope by now you have realized it’s not about how much XMR you mine but how much XMR you can mine efficiently.
You need to find the sweet spot between hashrate power to generate rewards and upfront and ongoing costs.
This means you have to choose the most efficient CPU, not the most powerful one.
Because while the Bitmain X5 is the most powerful it is also very expensive and guzzles a lot of electricity.
I have done the homework on identifying the most efficient CPU for you here: What Is the Best CPU for Monero Mining in 2023?
How Many GPUs Does it Take to Mine 1 Monero per Day?
GPUs perform much worse than CPUs when it comes to mining Monero.
They simply don’t have enough hash power on the RandomX algorithm that the Monero Network uses.
They are also more complicated to set up as they need specialized Monero mining software.
For example, the most powerful GPU, the NVIDIA TITAN RTX can only perform 8,500 H/s. which is 25 times less than the Bitmain X5.
And it’s not like it’s any cheaper.
In fact, all my simulations show that no matter what you do you end up in the red if you use a GPU to mine Monero.
See CPU or GPU for Monero Mining? Definitely Not GPU in 2023 for more.
Monero Mining Capacity per Day for Different Hardware
The table below shows you how much XMR you can mine per day for some of the most popular Monero mining hardware devices.
It also shows you how many of those CPUs you would need to buy and how much your total upfront capital allocation would need to be.
How many CPUs to mine one Monero XMR per day
| CPU | H/s | XMR/day | No of CPUs required to mine 1 XMR per day | Fixed capital investment required to mine 1 Monero / day |
| Bitmain X5 | 212,000 | 0.03106 | 32 | $120,694 |
| AMD EPYC 9554 64-Core Processor | 64,178 | 0.00940 | 106 | $583,837 |
| AMD Threadripper 3990X | 53,000 | 0.00777 | 129 | $386,196 |
| AMD EPYC 7J13 64-Core Processor | 49,463 | 0.00725 | 138 | $285,501 |
| AMD EPYC 7742 64-Core Processor | 48,823 | 0.00715 | 140 | $808,830 |
| AMD EPYC 7713 64-Core Processor | 45,222 | 0.00663 | 151 | $246,760 |
| AMD EPYC 7B12 64-Core Processor | 43,055 | 0.00631 | 159 | $187,053 |
| AMD EPYC 7702 64-Core Processor | 42,531 | 0.00623 | 160 | $784,062 |
| AMD EPYC 7H12 64-Core Processor | 42,480 | 0.00622 | 161 | $554,296 |
| AMD EPYC 7T83 64-Core Processor | 42,195 | 0.00618 | 162 | $328,032 |
| AMD Ryzen 9 7950X | 31,000 | 0.00454 | 220 | $127,915 |
| AMD EPYC 7742 | 31,000 | 0.00454 | 220 | $197,927 |
| AMD EPYC 7662 64-Core Processor | 24,568 | 0.00360 | 278 | $349,476 |
| AMD Ryzen 9 5950X | 22,000 | 0.00322 | 310 | $139,293 |
| AMD Ryzen 9 3950X | 18,000 | 0.00264 | 379 | $208,544 |
| AMD Ryzen 9 5950X | 15,000 | 0.00220 | 455 | $204,297 |
| AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D | 8,500 | 0.00125 | 803 | $246,505 |
| AMD Ryzen Threadripper 2950X | 8,500 | 0.00125 | 803 | $863,170 |
| Intel Core i9-10900K | 5,000 | 0.00001 | 158,722 | $45,077,188 |
The table above assumes that the current mining difficulty is 360G.
Other than the Bitmain X5 the hardware with the most computational power to mine Monero is AMD’s EPYC and Ryzen series.
Note that this analysis does not tell you which is the best miner because it does take cost into account.
FAQs
How much Monero can I mine in a day?
The most powerful Monero miner today, the Bitmain X5 can mine 0.03 XMR per day assuming a mining difficult of 360G.
How long does it take to mine 1 block of Monero?
The current block time for Monero is around 2 minutes. The block reward is 0.6 Monero which means it takes 3.33 minutes for 1 XMR to be added to the total Monero coin supply.
What is the fastest way to mine Monero?
The fastest miner is the Bitmain X5 which can mine 0.03XMR per day. The fastest way is to use up idle CPU processing power to mine Monero. For example a data center could optimize its revenue by mining Monero when its servers are not being put to other uses.
Is mining Monero easy?
If you are technically minded it is easy to get set up mining Monero. You do need to be comfortable ordering hardware components and putting them together to build a computer. You will also need to install software and set up a wallet.
Is solo mining Monero profitable?
Solo mining is only slightly more profitable than pool mining over the long term. The only difference is that your revenue is going to be very choppy while your cost of electricity is constant. You can expect to make 1 XMR every two years if you solo mine. Pool mining smoothens the income stream which is why even large crypto farms use them.
Which GPU is best for mining Monero?
None. They are all really bad at hashing the RandomX algorithm that Monero uses.
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