Is crypto mining profitable in the UK?

Rarely at domestic electricity prices. Most GPU-mineable coins break even somewhere between 1p and 14p per kWh, while UK domestic rates typically sit above 20p. Mining only becomes viable in the cheapest half-hours of a wholesale-linked tariff, or where the heat output displaces heating you would have paid for anyway.

Should the standing charge count against mining profit?

No. The daily standing charge is payable whether the rig runs or not, so it is not part of the marginal decision about switching on. It should be shown separately from mining profit rather than subtracted from it.

What is a break-even electricity price for mining?

The unit price at which mining revenue exactly equals the cost of the power drawn. Below it, the rig makes money; above it, it loses money. It depends on your hardware's hashrate and wattage, the coin's network hashrate and price, and any pool fee.

Mine or Not · priced by the half hour

Your rig doesn't cost
one price. It costs forty-eight.

Every mining calculator asks for a single electricity rate and assumes you run all day. On a wholesale-linked UK tariff, power changes price every thirty minutes — so profitability does too. This one prices your rig against tonight's actual half-hourly rates and tells you which windows are worth switching on.

Coin

Hardware

Units

Region

Tariff

Heat offset

Loading live rates…

Next 24 hours · unit rate incl. VAT Solid = profitable · faded = mining at a loss

Working it out…

Pulling live tariff and network data.

Mine every window: —scheduled
Run 24/7: —continuous
Profitable windows: —of 48 half hours
Break-even power: —p per kWh

Put this on your own site

Free to embed, no attribution beyond the link back. It updates itself — live tariff and network data, no maintenance on your end.

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What this does differently

It prices by the half hour, not the day

Wholesale-linked tariffs like Octopus Agile publish 48 prices a day, and on windy nights they occasionally go negative. A single average rate hides the only thing that matters: whether tonight has a cheap enough window to be worth running.

It draws your break-even across the prices

The dashed line is the unit price at which your hardware exactly covers its own power. Bars below it are windows worth mining. Faded bars are money going the wrong way.

It keeps the standing charge out of the decision

You pay the daily standing charge whether the rig runs or not, so it has no place in a marginal decision about switching on. Most calculators either ignore it entirely or subtract it from mining profit. Neither is right, so it sits below the line here.

ASICs are included, with caveats

Bitcoin and Litecoin machines are in the hardware list, and their break-even prices are genuinely better than any GPU — a modern SHA-256 miner clears its own power at around 6p per kWh, against roughly 8p for the best GPU coin. That is the whole reason industrial mining exists.

Two things the arithmetic does not show. They draw 3–3.5kW, which exceeds the roughly 3kW ceiling of a UK 13A socket, so they need a dedicated circuit rather than an extension lead. And they run at 75–90 decibels, which is somewhere between a vacuum cleaner and a petrol mower, continuously. Neither is a spare-room proposition.

It can credit back winter heat

From October to March, a rig in a room you were going to heat anyway displaces heating you would have bought. The toggle credits back 70% of power cost in those months. It's off by default, because it only holds if the heat lands somewhere you actually want it.

Your rig doesn't costone price. It costs forty-eight.