Best solo mining hardware in 2026

"Best solo mining hardware" depends entirely on what you want to do with it. The best device for someone who wants a quiet desktop Bitaxe mining BTC in hopes of one rare block is not the best device for someone who wants to feel DigiByte blocks land every few hours. Neither is the best device for someone converting a warehouse shelf into a Scrypt rig for DOGE and LTC.

This is a practical comparison of the devices SoloOdds tracks in 2026, grouped by the kind of miner each one fits. All hashrate, wattage, and algorithm numbers come from the same catalog the SoloOdds calculator uses, maintained against manufacturer specs and real-world measurements.

The SHA-256 desk class (Bitaxe family + NerdQaxe)

These are the devices most people mean when they say "home solo mining." Single-chip ASICs with wall-wart power supplies and 3D-printed or open-source enclosures, quiet enough to sit on a desk, and cheap enough that owning more than one is normal.

Device	Hashrate	Wattage	Power efficiency
Bitaxe Supra	0.6 TH/s	12 W	20 J/TH
Bitaxe Gamma	1.2 TH/s	15 W	12.5 J/TH
Bitaxe GT	2.0 TH/s	40 W	20 J/TH
Bitaxe Supra Hex	4.2 TH/s	90 W	21.4 J/TH
NerdQaxe++	4.8 TH/s	75 W	15.6 J/TH
NerdOCTAxe	9.6 TH/s	160 W	16.7 J/TH

Power efficiency, measured in joules per terahash, is the number that determines whether a device earns or loses money at a given electricity rate. Lower is better. The Bitaxe Gamma leads the desk class at 12.5 J/TH, thanks to Bitmain binning the BM1366 chip near the top of its efficiency curve. The NerdQaxe++ is next best. It gets there by running four Gamma-class chips in parallel rather than pushing each chip harder.

Who each fits:

The Bitaxe Gamma is still the default recommendation for someone buying their first solo miner. It's cheap, quiet, efficient, and the community support is strong enough that troubleshooting is Google-able. It will not make you money on BTC. Nothing in this price tier will. But it will teach you how solo mining actually works, for the lowest possible tuition.

The Bitaxe Supra Hex and NerdQaxe++ are for miners who already own a Gamma and want to step up. Both roughly quadruple the hashrate at 5–6× the power draw. They're the natural upgrade path once you've learned the basics and want to mine coins where the EV actually clears power at your electricity rate.

The NerdOCTAxe is where the desk class starts to look like a small rig. At 9.6 TH/s and 160 W, it's the highest-hashrate device you can still plausibly run on a normal wall outlet. It's also the first device on this list where the EV ranking for low-hashrate altcoins like BC2 turns reliably positive even at modest power prices.

The SHA-256 rig class (Avalon Nano/Mini/Q, Antminer S9, S19k Pro)

Once you're willing to give up silence and stop treating the miner as a desk accessory, the Avalon line and the second-hand Antminer market open up different tradeoffs.

Device	Hashrate	Wattage	Power efficiency
Canaan Avalon Nano 3S	6.0 TH/s	140 W	23.3 J/TH
Canaan Avalon Mini 3	37.5 TH/s	800 W	21.3 J/TH
Canaan Avalon Q	90 TH/s	1700 W	18.9 J/TH
Bitmain Antminer S9	14 TH/s	1372 W	98 J/TH
Bitmain Antminer S19k Pro	120 TH/s	2760 W	23 J/TH

The Avalon Nano 3S sits in an awkward spot. At 140 W it's too loud for a desk, but 6 TH/s isn't much more than a hex Bitaxe. It is much cheaper per terahash than anything in the desk class, though, which makes it the best value if you have a closet or a garage to put it in.

The Avalon Mini 3 and Avalon Q are for miners who want real hashrate, not a conversation piece. The Mini 3 is where solo mining BC2 or eCash becomes reliably profitable net of power at typical US residential electricity rates. The Q is where even solo mining BCH starts to pencil out.

Both Antminers are on this list because they're readily available used and they still pop up in solo mining content, though for very different reasons.

The S9 at 98 J/TH is almost an order of magnitude less efficient than anything else on this list. In 2026 it isn't a serious money-making device. The only reasons to run one are (a) you already own it, (b) you have free or near-free power, or (c) you're using it as a heater and mining is a side effect. It does win BTC blocks every so often, because 14 TH/s against worldwide network difficulty still eventually pays out if you mine long enough, and those stories are what keep the used S9 market alive. If you're buying an S9 specifically to chase that outcome, understand that expected time-to-block is measured in decades, and you're betting that the block value more than covers the power.

The S19k Pro is another story. At 23 J/TH it's competitive with the desk class on efficiency, with an order of magnitude more hashrate. The catch is it's loud, and 2,760 W of draw is not a casual load on a home circuit. For a miner with a dedicated 20 A circuit and a garage, this is the most hashrate per dollar on the list by a wide margin.

The Scrypt class (Hammer + Goldshell)

Scrypt solo mining is a different sport. The coins are different (DOGE and LTC dominate, since they merge-mine the same block), and the hardware is specialized.

Device	Hashrate	Wattage	Power efficiency
Hammer Miner DC02	105 MH/s	38 W	0.36 J/MH
Hammer Miner DC06	330 MH/s	105 W	0.32 J/MH
Goldshell Mini-DOGE Pro	205 MH/s	220 W	1.07 J/MH
Goldshell Mini-DOGE III	700 MH/s	400 W	0.57 J/MH

The Hammer Miner line is the Bitaxe equivalent for Scrypt: small, open hardware, quiet enough to sit on a desk. Both models are dramatically more efficient than the older Goldshell Mini-DOGE Pro, which was the dominant small Scrypt miner a generation ago and is now mostly interesting as a cheap second-hand option. The Mini-DOGE III cuts the efficiency gap nearly in half, but it's still louder and more power-hungry than either Hammer.

For a first Scrypt device in 2026, the Hammer DC02 is the cleanest starting point. It's roughly the DOGE/LTC equivalent of a Bitaxe Gamma: low power, quiet, and cheap enough that you can try it without a commitment.

The DC06 is the step up. At 330 MH/s it has a very different ratio against the LTC/DOGE network than a DC02 does, and the merge-mined block chance starts to feel like actual mining rather than a toy.

So what should you actually buy?

One sentence per budget tier.

If you want to learn solo mining without spending money, buy a Bitaxe Gamma. You will not get rich. You will understand exactly how the EV math works within a month, and that understanding is worth more than any single block you could win in that time.

If you want to feel altcoin blocks land, buy a NerdQaxe++ or a Bitaxe Supra Hex. Both put you in range of positive EV on the smaller SHA-256 coins (BC2, eCash, DigiByte at favorable difficulty) and both let you see the effect of your own hashrate on the ranking when difficulty moves.

If you want real hashrate per dollar and you have a garage, buy a used Avalon Mini 3 or a used Antminer S19k Pro. Both of these cross the line where BTC is still out of reach but the altcoin rankings become reliably green. The S19k Pro wins on absolute hashrate, the Mini 3 wins on noise and heat.

If you want to solo mine DOGE or LTC, buy a Hammer DC02 to start and a DC06 when you want to step up. Goldshells are an option if you find one cheap second-hand, but the efficiency gap means they only make sense if the price delta is large.

If you are chasing the one-block-changes-everything BTC dream, understand what you're actually paying for: a very small chance at a very large one-time win. Any of the higher-hashrate SHA-256 devices can theoretically win a BTC block. The expected value calculation is negative for all of them. If that's the call you want to make, make it with eyes open. Solo mining for BTC is hope and entertainment, not a profit strategy.

One thing this list doesn't tell you

Hashrate and wattage are the same for every miner. What changes is electricity rate and which coin you're pointing at. A NerdQaxe++ in a $0.08/kWh apartment is a completely different financial bet than the same device in a $0.28/kWh apartment, even with the same rank order on the coin list. The cheapest way to know whether a device makes sense for you is to run the numbers at your actual rate before you buy.

That's what the SoloOdds calculator is for. Pick the device, enter your rate, and see every coin ranked by EV per day. Every device on this list has its own page.