Guide · Nov 10, 2026 · 6 min read
How much does a bitcoin miner cost? From $474 to $15,624, and the number to compare
The machines we list run from a few hundred dollars to about $15,600 each. A bigger price does not mean a bigger machine, so the way to compare them is the price of one terahash, then the electricity it burns. Here is the sum, with real machines and dated prices.
TL;DR
- Machine prices run from $474 to $15,624 among the 140 bitcoin machines we list with a market price, last priced between April and September 2026.
- Compare machines on price per terahash, not on the sticker. It runs from $2.83 to $26.04.
- A higher price per terahash buys lower electricity use. Compare that saving with your power rate before you decide.
A miner's price is its price per terahash times its terahash
A bitcoin miner is sold by the work it does. The work is hashrate, counted in terahashes a second (TH/s), and its price is mostly that number times a price per terahash. A machine of 141 TH/s at $3.36 a terahash costs about $474. A machine of 600 TH/s at $26.04 a terahash costs about $15,624.
So the sticker price alone tells you almost nothing. A $3,000 machine and a $15,000 machine can both be good buys, because one may be selling you more work, and the other may be selling you the same work for less electricity. If you are new to the units, start with what the TH/s on a spec sheet counts.
Among the 140 machines we list, prices run from $474 to $15,624
We keep a market price for each bitcoin machine we list. The most recent for each, taken between April and September 2026, puts the cheapest at $474, an Antminer S19 XP of 141 TH/s priced on 3 September, and the dearest at $15,624, the Antminer S23 XP Hyd of 600 TH/s priced on 17 September. Half of them cost between $1,386 and $3,174, and the middle one is $2,093.
The table groups the 140 by how efficient they are, measured in joules of electricity per terahash (J/TH). The pattern is plain. The lower the J/TH, the more each terahash costs.
| Efficiency (J/TH) | Machines | Price per terahash | Price of one machine |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 10 | 2 | $23.20 to $26.04 | $13,064 to $15,624 |
| 10 to 13 | 7 | $10.92 to $15.02 | $4,593 to $10,000 |
| 13 to 16 | 46 | $6.51 to $13.44 | $1,640 to $7,766 |
| 16 to 20 | 78 | $3.78 to $8.71 | $856 to $4,095 |
| Over 20 | 7 | $2.83 to $6.09 | $474 to $1,852 |
Efficient machines cost more per terahash because they burn less power
Every terahash needs electricity. The J/TH figure is that electricity, and it converts directly: multiply it by 24 and divide by 1,000 and you have the kilowatt-hours one terahash uses in a day. An Antminer S19 XP at 21.35 J/TH uses 0.51 kWh a day for each terahash. An Antminer S21 XP at 13.5 J/TH uses 0.32. The S23 XP Hyd at 8.9 J/TH uses 0.21.
At 6 cents a kilowatt-hour, our rate in Argentina and the UAE, that is 3.1 cents a day per terahash for the S19 XP, 1.9 cents for the S21 XP and 1.3 cents for the S23 XP Hyd. The difference between the first and the last is 1.8 cents a day for each terahash, every day the machine is on.
The price gap runs the other way. A terahash of the S23 XP Hyd costs $26.04 against $3.36 for the S19 XP, a premium of $22.68. You pay that once, and you save the 1.8 cents a day for as long as the machine runs. That is the whole trade, and it is why the efficient machine is not simply expensive: the price includes the power it will not use.
Three machines, three prices, one comparison
Take the three machines we used. The S19 XP of 141 TH/s costs about $474 and draws 3,010 watts, which is 72 kWh a day and about $4.33 of electricity at 6 cents. The S21 XP of 270 TH/s was priced at $11.865 a terahash on 17 September, about $3,204, and draws 3,645 watts: 87 kWh and $5.25 a day. The S23 XP Hyd of 600 TH/s costs about $15,624 and draws 5,340 watts: 128 kWh and $7.69 a day.
Read across and you see what each extra dollar buys. The S21 XP does 1.9 times the work of the S19 XP for 1.2 times the power. The S23 XP Hyd does 4.3 times the work for 1.8 times the power. Work is what earns bitcoin, and power is what you pay for. The efficient machine takes a smaller share of what it earns in electricity.
We cover how to judge whether a given J/TH is a good one in what is a good J/TH, and how long a price takes to earn back in how long a miner takes to pay for itself.
The cheaper terahash is not the cheaper machine to run.
Air, hydro and immersion machines are priced differently too
Cooling is the second reason two machines of similar size can cost differently. An air-cooled machine uses fans. A hydro machine is cooled by water pumped through it, and an immersion machine sits in a tank of fluid, so both need a site built for them. Among our listings the 75 air-cooled machines have a middle price of $1,791, the 15 immersion machines $2,177 and the 50 hydro machines $2,646. Those machines are not equally efficient, which is part of the gap.
Compare like with like. Between 14 and 16.5 J/TH, the 24 air-cooled machines have a middle price of $9.35 a terahash and the six hydro machines $7.72. Hydro is not dearer for the same efficiency in that band; it is bought for what it lets the machine do at a site with water cooling. Which one suits you depends on where it will run, and we explain the choice in air, hydro or immersion.
The listed price is not the whole price
A machine's market price is the price of the box. A buyer also pays freight, import duty and setup, and a hosting deposit, and we put all of it into one price when you buy from us. We explain what lands in that total in the price of a miner is not the price of the box.
Prices also move. Machine prices follow the price of bitcoin, as the chart above shows, and a machine's price is better read as where it settled than where it launched; we explain that in a machine's price is what it settled to. A price from September is a guide to the range, not a quote, and the live price is on each machine's page.
Three questions to ask before you pay
First, what is the price per terahash, and which efficiency class is it in? Divide the price by the TH/s and compare it with the table above. Second, what is the J/TH, and what does it cost to run at your power rate? Multiply the watts by 24 and by your price per kilowatt-hour for the daily bill. Third, will the machine be switched on in two years at that rate? A machine near its power line stops earning when conditions tighten.
If you are choosing a first machine, what to check before you buy your first bitcoin miner gives the full list, and how to read a miner's spec sheet explains each line. Whether to buy new or used is a question of the power bill: see should your first miner be new or used.
What it means for a miner
The price of a miner is a number you pay once. The electricity is a number you pay every day. A machine that costs more per terahash but burns less is a way of paying part of the power bill in advance, and the longer the machine runs, the more that advance is worth.
For a miner who keeps the coins, the question is how many coins a dollar of machine and a dollar of electricity make together. Compare price per terahash and J/TH side by side, at the rate you will actually pay. Earnings are not guaranteed, and these prices are dated.
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.