Litecoin mining profitability: a dated comparison of seven ASIC setups

In the 30 September 2026 snapshot, some Litecoin mining setups covered their modeled electricity bill. That was a much lower bar than earning back a new machine. An Antminer L9 16G at $0.10/kWh produces a modeled $1.33 a day after electricity and a 2% pool fee, at 95% uptime. Add $1 a day for other running costs and the margin falls to $0.33. At $0.15/kWh, every configuration below is negative before those extra costs.

The most efficient device in this comparison is the liquid-cooled L11 HU2. The L11 is the strongest air-cooled model on energy efficiency. At the 30 September check, both were marked sold out in BITMAIN’s official shop and the L9 was listed for spot sale at a much lower machine price. We did not verify present executable prices during the 27 October review. A cheap L7 can have a shorter simple payback at very low electricity prices, but that advantage is easily lost to running costs. Those distinctions matter more than a single “most profitable miner” ranking.

Snapshot: market and network inputs captured 30 September 2026 at 23:43:28 UTC — 1 October, 01:43:28 in Warsaw. This is a dated calculation, not a live earnings claim. Load the fixed L9 example in our calculator, or use the calculator’s automatic inputs for a new estimate, checking their timestamps and entering your own measured wall power, fees and costs before making a purchase.

What “Litecoin mining” pays you for

These machines use Scrypt. A Bitcoin SHA-256 ASIC cannot be substituted, and a gaming GPU is not a competitive option for this calculation. A merged-mining pool can use compatible work for Litecoin and Dogecoin together. The revenues are separate; they must be calculated using each network’s difficulty and subsidy.

In our L9 base case, DOGE supplies 84.8% of modeled coin revenue. The LTC component is $1.37 per day after the fee, against $7.62 from DOGE. If the pool does not credit DOGE or an equivalent converted reward, the L9’s LTC-only electricity ceiling is just $0.0178/kWh. Ignoring merged rewards makes the economics look far worse; counting the same rewards twice makes them look falsely attractive.

Check how your pool pays before comparing fees. LitecoinPool’s published rules describe a nominal 2% PPS fee on both LTC and DOGE and no payout fee. Other merged coins can support its payout ratio without appearing as separate coins in your wallet. Our model includes only LTC and DOGE, with the captured 98% ratio represented as a 2% fee. It does not add speculative BELLS or other rewards. This simplified PPS-style estimate assumes accepted work and is not evidence of an actual payout; pool terms, rejected shares, conversion and additional merged rewards can change the result.

The hardware: efficiency, price and availability

The listings were checked on 30 September 2026; their prices and availability can change. The listed power inputs are manufacturer specifications, not measurements from our hardware. For the BITMAIN L9, the published 3,360 W is typical wall power at 25°C; BITMAIN states ±5% power and ±3% hashrate tolerance. Other equipment and conditions can differ. The comparison covers seven configurations of six devices, including two modes of one small Goldshell miner. It is a selected set, not a complete market catalogue.

The L11’s 0.184 J/MH rating is more efficient than the L9’s 0.210 J/MH. The hydro L11 HU2 reaches 0.165 J/MH at the miner. At the 30 September check, BITMAIN’s shop marked the L11 and HU2 sold out, so their displayed prices were not then executable purchase offers. ElphaPex marked DG2+ as futures at that check. We do not model a future unit as already installed and earning revenue.

Shipping, import charges, applicable taxes, installation and coupon eligibility can change a quote. Our price comparison uses the displayed prices before coupons. BITMAIN’s older L7 9050M support sheet lists 3,260 W; the shop listing checked on 30 September showed 3,258 W. We use that listed SKU’s 3,258 W, rather than combining the price of one variant with the performance of a faster one.

Goldshell power limitation: the MINI DOGE III PLUS is specified with a 12 V DC input; we could not verify that its 500 W and 300 W ratings include AC power-supply losses. The historical model uses those published values as if they were wall draw. Its two J/MH values and electricity margins may therefore be too optimistic and are not directly comparable with an AC wall measurement. Measure the complete miner and power supply at the socket and rerun the estimate; do not treat the small positive low-power result as demonstrated profitability.

Daily margins at five electricity prices

All rows use the same historical coin prices, a separate difficulty for each network, a 2% fee and 95% uptime. Goldshell rows use the unverified-as-wall power assumption described above. We assume the miner consumes no power while offline. The table excludes external cooling, repair, rent, finance, tax and the purchase price. Its positive cells are money available to pay those costs, not a completed investment return.

At $0.10/kWh the L9 has $1.33 a day left. The L11 has $2.84. At $0.20/kWh, their respective losses are −$6.33 and −$5.55. A larger hashrate does not overcome a power price above the device’s revenue per kWh.

The electricity ceiling is your first rejection test

An L9 electricity bill above $0.1173/kWh consumes all modeled revenue before other costs. With a $1/day allowance for other costs, that ceiling falls to $0.1043/kWh. A near-zero cushion is not enough to absorb lower payouts, a broken fan or an adverse exchange rate.

The small MINI DOGE III PLUS illustrates why “home miner” and “income-producing appliance” are different descriptions. Its low-power mode has a better ceiling than its default mode. At $0.05/kWh, however, the low-power mode leaves only $0.01 per day before every other cost. That rounds to roughly one cent; it provides no practical route to recovering a $474 machine under unchanged inputs.

A faster payback can disappear when you include $1 a day

At $0.05/kWh, the inexpensive L7 appears to repay its displayed machine price faster than the L9 when we count only electricity and the pool fee. A $1/day additional cost reverses that comparison: roughly 1957 days for the L7 versus 808 for the L9. This is why a hardware ranking without a purchase price and cost boundary is incomplete.

For a separate L9 example, assume $4,000 delivered and installed, $0.05/kWh and $1/day additional cost. The $4,000 is an illustrative total, not a supplier quote. The modeled margin is $4.16 per day and static payback is about 962 days, or 2.64 years. At $0.10/kWh, the same setup needs about 12,215 days, over 33 years, in the static calculation. That number describes a thin margin; it is not a credible estimate of the machine’s working life.

Static payback freezes future prices and difficulties. The calculation does not establish that a miner will stay operational, retain the same payout or find a buyer at the end. Our mining ROI tool lets you enter your delivered cost and compare explicit monthly assumptions.

Why two “current profit” calculators can disagree

Our primary case uses LitecoinPool’s displayed 24-hour average DOGE difficulty of 37,177,938.8816. A separate Blockchair capture reported an instantaneous DOGE difficulty of 27,580,455.3006. The LTC difficulty was effectively identical. Holding our prices and all other inputs fixed, swapping only that DOGE difficulty raises the L9’s modeled total coin revenue by 29.5%.

Neither snapshot is a record of what your machine actually earned. DOGE difficulty changes by block, and the pool’s average is being used here as a constant scenario. It is not an integration of changing rewards across the previous 24 hours. A single low-difficulty moment is especially weak evidence for a multi-year purchase.

The same table keeps the expected next Litecoin halving effect separate. Its calendar date, commonly estimated in 2027, depends on block production and is not guaranteed. Halving only Litecoin’s subsidy reduces the L9’s modeled daily revenue by $0.68, about 7.6% of combined revenue in this snapshot. DOGE’s subsidy is unchanged in that scenario. It does not follow that total merged-mining income halves. Future DOGE price and difficulty can have a much larger effect. See the halving tracker and our post-halving mining guide.

For a Polish electricity bill, convert the full marginal rate

The NBP reference rate used here is 3.8449 PLN per USD, dated 30 September 2026. It is a mid-rate, not an offer to convert mining payouts. The L9 base electricity ceiling corresponds to about 0.451 PLN/kWh. Add $1/day other cost and it falls to about 0.401 PLN/kWh.

These tariffs are examples, not a claim about a national household average or your supplier’s contract. Use the additional amount the miner adds to your bill, including applicable variable distribution charges and taxes. Add fixed charges only when the installation creates or increases them. If a tariff changes after a consumption limit, calculate the miner’s consumption in the affected band. Its L9 power use is about 2,298 kWh in a modeled 30-day month at 95% uptime.

Cooling, heat reuse and solar power can change the answer

The L11 HU2 has the highest modeled daily margin in this set, but its 5.775 kW wall rating is not a complete cooling-system budget. The manufacturer specifies three-phase 380–480 V supply and 8–10 litres per minute coolant flow. Pumps, fans, heat rejection and their installation need separate prices and power measurements. It is not an ordinary household plug-in alternative.

For an air-cooled L9, 3.36 kW becomes roughly the same continuous heat output while running. BITMAIN lists 75 dBA under its stated fan conditions; the L11 lists 76 dBA. Treat ventilation and noise as installation constraints. A qualified electrician should assess the actual circuit, protection and connections for continuous operation; a hashrate specification does not establish electrical suitability.

Heat reuse should be credited only when it replaces heat you would otherwise buy. Replacing resistance heating is a different comparison from replacing a heat pump. Do not credit heat that is vented outdoors, or count the same avoided electricity twice. A winter advantage can disappear in summer.

Solar electricity also has an alternative use. Foregone export income or electricity that could replace grid purchases belongs in its opportunity cost. A miner running only in surplus hours earns for fewer hours; apply the actual operating schedule rather than attaching a zero electricity price to 24-hour revenue. Battery losses and wear need their own allowance.

Which configuration would I investigate first?

• For the historical L9 air-cooled case: compare the L9’s delivered quote with your all-in power price and running costs. In the 30 September captured set its listed price was lower than the displayed L11 and DG2+ prices. Verify a current delivered quote and availability; cheap electricity alone does not establish an investment return.
• For energy efficiency in an air-cooled installation: the L11 leads the air-cooled configurations compared here. Verify availability and the actual delivered price; the official listing was sold out at the 30 September check.
• For an equipped hydro installation: the L11 HU2 leads miner-level energy efficiency and daily cash margin in this comparison. Recalculate after adding the entire cooling loop and installation cost.
• For an inexpensive L7: investigate only with a genuinely low marginal power price and a credible condition/repair allowance. Its low listed price helps payback; its higher power per unit of work gives much less room for worsening conditions.
• For a small home device: treat the Goldshell comparison as a costed hobby unless your own measured payout and power cost establish a worthwhile margin. The roughly one-cent historical result is especially sensitive to unmeasured power-supply losses and does not establish a positive wall-power margin or finance a new appliance.

Before paying, obtain the exact hashrate variant, PSU and cooling requirements, delivered total, warranty terms and expected dispatch date. Compare at least a lower-payout scenario, not just the base. If you already own a miner, the run-or-stop question concerns incremental costs; a new purchase must also recover capital. Those are separate decisions.

Data, equations and how to check the result

For each coin, expected coins/day ≈ hashrate_GH × 10⁹ × 86,400 × uptime × subsidy ÷ (difficulty × 2³²). We calculate LTC and DOGE separately, convert with their own USD prices, then deduct the fee once from each revenue. The standard difficulty-work approximation is appropriate for these displayed estimates; rounding is applied only after calculation.

Modeled active daily kWh = assumed_power_W ÷ 1,000 × 24 × uptime. This is wall energy only if the input represents the entire measured AC draw; the Goldshell inputs may omit power-supply losses. Margin = after-fee revenue − electricity − stated other costs. The electricity ceiling divides revenue remaining after stated other costs by active kWh. Transaction fees, extra merged coins, rejected shares, firmware fees, finance, taxes and resale are not silently included. A 95% uptime assumption does not measure your stale-share rate or hardware errors.

Our Python calculations agree with the existing JavaScript mining calculator for all seven configurations. A separate LitecoinPool calculation using the same frozen values at 100% uptime returned $9.46 revenue, $8.06 electricity and $1.40 margin for the L9 at $0.10/kWh. Our unrounded calculation gives $1.3973; applying 95% uptime gives the article’s $1.33. This checks arithmetic, not future payouts.

Download the frozen inputs, standard-library Python script and results, the hardware CSV, electricity scenarios or full JSON results. Follow the reproduction notes and the SHA-256 manifest. The manifest covers the ZIP and separate published files, including charts and the image; it is not solely a list of files inside the ZIP. Verify the downloaded ZIP against its own manifest entry before unpacking. The script is named calculate.py inside the ZIP and calculate.py.txt as a separate published file; compare its digest to that entry if checking it separately. The script runs offline against the recorded inputs; it does not replace them with newer quotes.

Primary references: BITMAIN L9 specifications and tolerances; LitecoinPool’s calculator and reward rules; BITMAIN’s official listings and the per-model links above; ElphaPex’s product list; Goldshell’s two operating modes; Blockchair’s instantaneous DOGE comparison; and NBP’s published exchange-rate table. Report a reproducible error through our corrections page.

AI-assisted research, drafting, code and illustration; scripted arithmetic checks. This study does not include physical miner measurements, a hardware reliability test or an independent human review. The hero is a generated editorial illustration, not a photograph of devices tested for this article.