Cost to Mine 1 Bitcoin (CAD) — Worked Model by Hardware & Province

Quick answer

The cost to mine one bitcoin is mostly an electricity bill, and it depends on three numbers: your miner's efficiency (J/TH), the network difficulty, and your power rate. As of July 2026, a current-gen S21-class miner (15 J/TH) needs about 728,258 kWh of electricity to mine one whole BTC — roughly C$51,451 at Quebec's 7.07¢/kWh, versus about C$139,301 in Nova Scotia. An older S19-class machine (29.5 J/TH) costs nearly twice as much per coin. Hardware, pool fees and downtime are on top.

This is the electricity-only cost to mine a full coin of issuance. Use the calculator below with your own efficiency and rate.

COST TO MINE 1 BTC — AS OF JULY 2026

C$51,451 electricity / BTC

S21-class miner (15 J/TH) at Hydro-Québec's 7.07¢ CAD/kWh · difficulty 127.2 T · subsidy 3.125 BTC. Refreshed monthly from live network data.

The formula (no black box)

The cost to mine one bitcoin is almost entirely the electricity it takes to win that much of the block subsidy. Because every miner on the network shares the same difficulty, the hashrate you own cancels out and the cost-per-coin reduces to your efficiency and your power rate:

kWh per BTC = efficiency(J/TH) × 24/1000 × difficulty × 2³² ÷ (10¹² × 86,400 × subsidy)
cost per BTC = kWh per BTC × your electricity rate

That is the same revenue math behind our mining profitability calculator and live hashprice — just rearranged to answer "what does one whole coin cost me in power?". It is electricity only: hardware amortization, pool fees (~1–2%), heating/cooling and downtime are separate line items.

YOUR NUMBERS

Miner efficiency (J/TH)Electricity rate (¢ CAD/kWh)

Three hardware tiers, at Quebec power

Hardware tier	Efficiency	kWh per BTC	Electricity cost / BTC (QC)
S21-class (current-gen) e.g. Antminer S21 Pro · BM1370	15.0 J/TH	728,258 kWh	C$51,451
S19-class (refurb workhorse) e.g. Antminer S19j Pro · BM1398	29.5 J/TH	1,432,240 kWh	C$101,188
Bitaxe (open-source solo) Bitaxe Gamma · BM1370 · ~1.2 TH/s	17.0 J/TH	825,359 kWh	C$58,312 ¹

¹ The Bitaxe number is real but misleading on its own. A Bitaxe Gamma is an efficient modern chip, so its electricity-cost-per-coin looks competitive — but at about 1.2 TH/s it would take on the order of thousands of years to solo-mine a single block. A Bitaxe is a sovereignty, learning and lottery device, not a way to accumulate a whole coin. See the solo-mining odds calculator. Computed at difficulty 127.2 T, July 2026.

Cost to mine 1 BTC by Canadian province

Electricity-only cost for a current-gen S21-class miner (15 J/TH), using each province's residential rate. Sorted cheapest first. This is why where you plug in matters as much as what you plug in. The same map in carbon terms is the CO₂ to mine 1 BTC by province dataset.

Province	Rate (CAD/kWh)	Electricity cost to mine 1 BTC
Quebec	0.0707	C$51,451
Manitoba	0.0997	C$72,607
British Columbia	0.1187	C$86,444
Ontario	0.1200	C$87,391
Alberta	0.1201	C$87,464
Prince Edward Island	0.1437	C$104,651
Newfoundland & Labrador	0.1521	C$110,790
New Brunswick	0.1539	C$112,079
Saskatchewan	0.1548	C$112,705
Nova Scotia	0.1913	C$139,301

S21-class miner (15 J/TH), electricity only, at difficulty 127.2 T (July 2026). Rates are residential blended figures from D-Central's province dataset and change with your plan and usage tier. Compare with current BTC price (C$87,753) to see your margin.

What this number does and does not include

Included: the electricity to produce one whole bitcoin of block subsidy at the current difficulty and your efficiency and rate.
Not included: the hardware purchase (amortize it over the machine's life), pool fees (~1–2%), cooling or the heat credit if you reuse it, and downtime. Transaction fees push your revenue up but do not change the issuance you are mining toward.
Moves over time: difficulty trends up (raising the cost per coin) while each halving cuts the subsidy in half (doubling it). That is why this page refreshes monthly.

Frequently asked questions

How much does it cost to mine 1 Bitcoin in 2026?

For an efficient current-gen S21-class miner (15 J/TH), the electricity to mine one whole bitcoin is about 728,258 kWh — roughly C$51,451 at Quebec's low 7.07¢/kWh hydro rate, and proportionally more at higher rates (about C$139,301 in Nova Scotia). Older S19-class hardware uses nearly twice the power per coin. This is electricity only, as of July 2026; hardware, pool fees and downtime are extra.

How is the cost to mine 1 Bitcoin calculated?

It is the electricity needed to win one bitcoin of block subsidy. Because the whole network shares the same difficulty, your own hashrate cancels and the cost reduces to: kWh per BTC = efficiency (J/TH) × 24/1000 × difficulty × 2³² ÷ (10¹² × 86,400 × subsidy), then multiplied by your electricity rate. Only two of your inputs matter — how efficient your miner is, and how cheap your power is.

Does electricity rate or miner efficiency matter more?

Both scale the cost linearly, so a 2× difference in either is a 2× difference in cost per coin. In practice your power rate has the wider spread: Canadian residential rates run from about 7¢/kWh in Quebec and Manitoba to 18¢+ in Saskatchewan and the Maritimes — a 2.5× swing — while modern ASICs cluster between roughly 15 and 30 J/TH. Cheap power is the single biggest lever, which is why it concentrates where hydro is abundant.

Can a Bitaxe mine a whole Bitcoin?

Realistically, no. A Bitaxe Gamma is efficient (about 17 J/TH), so on paper its electricity-cost-per-coin looks competitive — but at roughly 1.2 TH/s it would take on the order of thousands of years to solo-mine a single block. A Bitaxe is a sovereignty, education and lottery device: you run it for the ~1-in-millions shot, the learning, and the heat, not to stack a full coin. Our solo-mining odds calculator shows the real probabilities.

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Last reviewed June 12, 2026.