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Outlook · Oct 27, 2026 · 6 min read

The Avalon A16 uses 8% more power per terahash than the A16XP, and that decides its site

Canaan's air-cooled A16 is listed at 282 TH/s from 3,900 W, 13.83 J/TH, a step behind the A16XP's 12.8. On those numbers it clears its power at 6¢ today but not after the April 2028 halving, where Nigeria's 3.9¢ carries it with room to spare. The record and the price are what it has still to prove.

Firsthand card: "The Avalon A16 uses 8% more power per terahash than the A16XP, and that decides its site", with the store photograph of the Canaan Avalon A16, 13.83 J/TH, 282 TH/s, air-cooled

Canaan Avalon A16 (282 TH/s)

Canaan's air-cooled A16: 282 TH/s from 3,900 W

Canaan announced the Avalon A16 series on 28 October 2025 at the Blockchain Life summit in Dubai. The release names the air-cooled A16XP, 300 TH/s at 12.8 J/TH, available for pre-order from production centres in North America, East Asia and Southeast Asia. It does not name the base A16.

Our store record gives the A16 as 282 TH/s from 3,900 W, 13.83 J/TH, air-cooled, 14.9 kg, 75 dB, on 220 to 277 V with an operating range of −5 to 35 °C, and retail listings of the model carry the same figures. Canaan has not published them on a page we could open, so those are the specs we state and nothing more is claimed about the hardware. Air-cooled machines start at our Argentina site.

Chairman and chief executive Nangeng Zhang called the series "a leap forward for the Company in both energy efficiency and computing power". Our store lists the A16 as launched in March 2026 and sold out today, so what follows is what the specification implies, not an offer.

The maker's release names the A16XP. The A16 is the cheaper sibling it did not name.

Eight per cent more energy for every terahash than the A16XP

Canaan's air-cooled line has taken four steps since the 18.8 J/TH A15 of November 2024. The A15 Pro is 16.6 J/TH and the A15 Pro+ 15.5. The A16 is 13.83 and the A16XP 12.8. The A16 sits between the generations: 17% less energy per terahash than the A15 Pro, 11% less than the A15 Pro+, and 8% more than the A16XP.

At Argentina's 6¢ the A16 makes a bitcoin for about $46,600 of electricity, against about $43,200 for the A16XP, $52,200 for the A15 Pro+ and $55,900 for the A15 Pro, with the market at $79,541. At Nigeria's 3.9¢ the A16's figure falls to about $30,300.

Chart: One bought at the reference price and racked in Argentina: year one at today's difficulty, and what it returns by the April 2028 halving with bitcoin back at its previous high.

The cheaper box returns more in year one than the A16XP

The reference price we hold for the A16 is $13.65 a terahash, $3,849 a unit, dated 20 June. The A16XP is $16.80 a terahash, the A15 Pro+ $9.98 and the A15 Pro $7.14. The S21 XP, the air-cooled Antminer most buyers compare against, is $11.55 at 13.5 J/TH.

At today's figures the A16's first-year return is about 26% in Argentina and 29% in Nigeria, against 24% in Argentina for the A16XP, 27% for the A15 Pro+ and 31% for the S21 XP. The A16XP makes the cheaper coin. The A16's box costs less for each terahash, which is where the difference in year one comes from.

A reference price on a sold-out machine is not an offer, and a new generation's price moves as stock arrives. The efficiency is the part that stays. Whether the price is there on the day you buy is the part to check.

What ranks around it today on cost per coin and first-year return, in stock.

At 6¢ it does not carry through the halving; at Nigeria's rate it does

A machine's line is the hashprice at which it stops covering its own power. At 13.83 J/TH a petahash uses 332 kWh a day: $19.92 at 6¢ and $12.94 at Nigeria's 3.9¢.

Network hashprice was $35.93 per petahash per day on 26 October on our hashprice chart, so the A16 clears the 6¢ line by $16.01 and Nigeria's by $22.99 today. The April 2028 halving would cut that to near $17.97 at an unchanged price and difficulty. That is $1.95 under the A16's line at 6¢ and $5.03 above it at 3.9¢. The A16XP's line at 6¢ is $18.48, 51 cents over the halved figure. When we looked at it on 3 October, with hashprice at about $40.50, it cleared that line by about a tenth; the fall in hashprice since has moved it from a margin question to a Nigeria question too.

This is today's conditions held flat, not a forecast: it is why every projection we publish assumes the old high returns. On those terms the A16 is an Argentina machine until the halving and a Nigeria machine after it, which is the one crossing every machine makes: a machine crosses to cheap power once. The long version of the line is in the guide to efficiency and halvings.

Halved, today's hashprice is $1.95 under the A16's 6¢ line and 51 cents under the A16XP's.

Chart: Network hashprice since January, in dollars per petahash per day. The A16's line is near $19.92 at 6¢ and $12.94 at 3.9¢. Open the chart

Where it would live, and what a fault would cost

Air-cooled machines start in Argentina, at 6¢, where repairs are done on site and billed at the cost of the parts. The A16 is a Canaan machine, so a fault follows Canaan's route rather than Bitmain's. It is a line item, not a catastrophe, but one we cannot yet put a number on for this model.

It is a 75 dB machine rated for operation up to 35 °C, built for a hall with proper airflow, which the guide to air, hydro and immersion explains. After its one crossing, to Nigeria's 3.9¢, it is the same machine on a third less power.

Two containers in graphite and warm sand on a raked gravel pad in late-afternoon light, with a louvred intake flank and a row of roof-mounted exhaust fans
Air-cooled capacity at scale: containers with louvred intake flanks and roof-mounted exhaust fans. An illustration, not a photograph of a site.

What would have to go wrong

The record. The A16 has no field record we can stand behind. We looked for operator reports of its boards and found none, so none are quoted here, and we score reliability as unknown, not as good. The lineage helps only so far: the A15 Pro's own record is short, and a new chip is a new chip.

The availability. Our store lists the A16 as sold out. A reference price is not a price you can pay, and the next batch may not be priced the same. The A16XP and the A15 Pro+ are the comparison on the day.

The rating. The margin at Nigeria's 3.9¢ after the halving is $5.03 a petahash, about two-fifths of the line. A machine that came in a tenth worse than its nameplate, at about 15.2 J/TH, would still clear it. At 6¢ the margin is already negative after the halving, so the rating does not change who the machine is for. They are the questions a first batch answers.

What it means for a miner

If the rating holds, the A16 is an air-cooled Avalon that turns the same electricity into about 12% more bitcoin than the A15 Pro+, starts in Argentina and carries through the April 2028 halving only on Nigeria's power, the one crossing every machine makes.

Output is never guaranteed: the rating is the store's record of Canaan's figure, and the figures here are today's conditions held flat. If you are buying to keep coins past the halving, today's figures put both the A16 and the A16XP on Nigeria's power, the A16XP by only 51 cents at 6¢. If you are buying for the first twelve months, the A16's cheaper box returns more today. Check the price on the day, and put it beside the A16XP and the S21 XP on the machine page.

Eight per cent more energy per terahash is the difference between missing a halved hashprice by 51 cents and by $1.95 at 6¢.

What people are saying online

This new product reflects a leap forward for the Company in both energy efficiency and computing power.

The maker's claim for the series on the day of the launch: more efficiency, and more hashrate, than the generation before.

Sources and further reading

Which machines this covers

Disclosure

Firsthand Bitcoin sells and hosts mining hardware, including this machine. No manufacturer, distributor or affiliate programme paid for or reviewed this page and we take no commission on the links above. Historical figures are computed from daily bitcoin price and network hashprice, each day valued at its own prices. Nothing here is investment advice.