What it costs to mine a bitcoin, and what a cost figure leaves out

A miner reports two costs, and they answer different questions.

A bitcoin miner turns electricity into bitcoin. The first cost anyone asks about is the electricity, and every miner on file that states a cost per bitcoin states this one: the power bill, plus the other direct costs the company counts, divided by the bitcoin mined in the period. On this site that is the direct cost per bitcoin. It answers one question: what did it cost, in cash, to keep the machines running for each coin.

The second cost adds the wear on the machines, which the first leaves out, and it answers a different question: what did the coin cost once depreciation is counted. The trouble is that each company decides what else to add. One names financing costs as well. None of the figures with depreciation that companies publish adds the salaries of the people who run the company. So such a figure is only readable next to its definition, which is why the table below carries each company's own words.

This site also keeps a definition of its own, on the methodology page, and calls it all-in: mining costs plus payroll, general and administrative expense and depreciation, divided by bitcoin mined. No company on file reports that figure. Every cost with depreciation below is the company's own, marked as such.

Follow the power bill through to bitcoin and cash.

What each company puts inside its figure.

Of the six miners compared here, three publish a cost per bitcoin with depreciation. Here is each one, with the period it covers and what the filing says it includes and excludes.

Direct cost per bitcoin and cost per bitcoin with depreciation, as each company reports them, in dollars. The period is the one the filing states.

Direct cost per bitcoin and cost per bitcoin with depreciation, as each company reports them, in dollars. The period is the one the filing states.

Company	Period	Direct	With depreciation	What the cost with depreciation includes and leaves out
CleanSpark	Quarter ended Jun 30, 2026	44,406	96,277	Adds non-cash depreciation and financing costs (none in the quarter ended Jun 30, 2026); miner depreciation alone is 51,871 of it. Leaves out SG&A.
Riot	Quarter ended Jun 30, 2026	49,912	90,631	Both costs are net of 10.1 million of power curtailment credits. Leaves out SG&A.
TeraWulf	Quarter ended Jun 30, 2026	44,547	97,486	Energy is 44,402 of the direct figure, net of expected demand response proceeds, for the Lake Mariner Data Campus alone. Adds 52,939 of depreciation, which the 10-Q gives in a footnote. Leaves out SG&A and interest.

Three things to notice. The direct figures sit within about 6,000 dollars of each other. The figures with depreciation sit within about 7,000 dollars of each other, but that is partly coincidence, because they do not include the same things. And every one of them leaves out SG&A, which matters for the last section of this article.

The other three publish a direct cost and no cost with depreciation: MARA, IREN and American Bitcoin, the listed mining subsidiary of Hut 8. Hut 8 itself states no cost per bitcoin, so the 36,500 below is American Bitcoin's figure and not Hut 8's. Each one defines even the direct figure a little differently, and the filing says how.

Direct cost per bitcoin where no cost with depreciation is published, in dollars.

Direct cost per bitcoin where no cost with depreciation is published, in dollars.

Company	Period	Direct	How the company defines it
MARA	Quarter ended Jun 30, 2026	38,690	The amounts paid to power providers for power consumed, at owned sites; third-party hosting and other energy costs are a separate line and are not in it.
American Bitcoin, a Hut 8 subsidiary	Quarter ended Jun 30, 2026	36,500	Hut 8 itself states no cost per bitcoin. American Bitcoin's release does not define its figure; its 10-Q puts cost of revenue before depreciation at $34.0 million over about 932 bitcoin mined, which is about the same, and says all its miners sit at Hut 8's facilities, where Hut 8 billed it colocation and management fees.
IREN	Quarter ended Dec 31, 2025	34,400	Net electricity costs per bitcoin mined: electricity after demand response income, plus the program's fees, for bitcoin mining only; the company prints it in thousands of dollars, as 34.4.

A gap where a bar would be means the company publishes no cost with depreciation. The bars are the companies' own numbers and are not adjusted to one definition; the table above says what each includes.

Set each cost against the bitcoin the company earned.

A cost per bitcoin means something only against what a bitcoin brought in during the same period. All three companies state that figure in the same filing: CleanSpark's average revenue per bitcoin mined was 71,692 dollars in its quarter, Riot's production value was 71,667 dollars per bitcoin mined in its quarter, and TeraWulf's 10-Q prints the value of each bitcoin mined at 71,704 dollars for the quarter.

Each cost as a share of the company's own revenue per bitcoin mined in the same period. The percentages are the ones the filings state, except TeraWulf's share with depreciation, which is this page's arithmetic from the two figures its filing gives (97,486 over 71,704).

Each cost as a share of the company's own revenue per bitcoin mined in the same period. The percentages are the ones the filings state, except TeraWulf's share with depreciation, which is this page's arithmetic from the two figures its filing gives (97,486 over 71,704).

Company	Revenue per bitcoin	Direct cost as a share of it	Cost with depreciation as a share of it
CleanSpark	71,692	61.9 percent	134.3 percent
Riot	71,667	69.6 percent	126.5 percent
TeraWulf	71,704	62.1 percent	136.0 percent

Read the CleanSpark row. On the direct cost alone, each bitcoin cost about 62 percent of what it brought in: a cash margin. Once the wear on the machines is added, each bitcoin cost 134 percent of what it brought in: a loss, on that basis, of about 24,600 dollars a coin. Both statements are true at once, and they describe different things. The first is the cash the quarter produced. The second is what is left after the machines that produced it are being paid for.

So the answer to "is this company mining at a loss?" is: on which basis, in which period. In the quarter ended Jun 30, 2026, CleanSpark's direct cost was below its revenue per bitcoin mined and its cost with depreciation was above it. Riot reads the same way. Neither figure says anything about a later quarter, because both move with the bitcoin price, the network's total hashrate, and the company's own machines.

Where the salaries are, and why cutting them would not move these figures.

Officer pay is booked in selling, general and administrative expense, SG&A, and every cost with depreciation on file leaves SG&A out. That means the question "what would the cost per bitcoin be if the team paid itself less?" has a plain answer for these three companies: it would be exactly the same. The pay is not in the number. What would move is net income, which is where SG&A lands.

The pay is not small. CleanSpark's proxy lists five named executive officers whose 2025 totals, as printed in its Summary Compensation Table, add to about 133 million dollars, most of it stock awards. None of that is in the 96,277 dollars. Under this site's own definition, which adds payroll and general and administrative expense, it would be, and the cost per bitcoin would read higher than the company's figure by however many bitcoin that year's payroll is spread across.

That is the practical use of knowing the definition. A company that reports a low cost per bitcoin has not necessarily got low costs; it may have drawn the line around a narrower set of them. The people page for each company lists what each officer was paid, year by year, so the amount left outside the cost figure is always one click from it.