The Economics of Mining Bitcoin on a PC in 2026

Since Bitcoin launched on January 3, 2009, mining has shifted from personal computers to application-specific integrated circuits, or ASICs, made by companies such as Bitmain. Following the April 20, 2024 halving, the reward per block fell to 3.125 BTC, making competition for computing power and electricity costs critical to profitability.

As of 2026, a typical desktop computer can produce only tens to hundreds of megahashes per second using SHA-256, while dedicated ASICs can reach hundreds of terahashes per second—a gap of more than one million times. At 300 watts of power consumption and an electricity price of $0.10 per kilowatt-hour, a PC would cost about $0.72 a day to run, and mining revenue would generally be insufficient to cover the expense.