Daniel Park runs a small mining operation out of his garage in Los Angeles. Eight Antminer S21 XPs on order, arriving next month. He spent three weeks getting hosting quotes. Three providers came back with three different numbers. Provider A at $0.06 per kilowatt-hour. Provider B at $0.075. MillionMiner at $0.08.
On the math he did that evening at his kitchen table, Provider A was the obvious winner. Across eight S21 XPs pulling a nameplate 3,645W each, running 24/7 for a year, the $0.06 rate would save him roughly $6,100 compared to the $0.08 quote. Real money. He signed the Provider A contract the next morning.
Twelve months later he was paying an effective $0.102 per kilowatt-hour. Demand charges, a capacity fee, a management line item, a per-miner setup cost, and two repair invoices he had not expected. His actual 12-month bill came in $10,400 higher than what the Provider A quote implied. The $0.08 MillionMiner quote he passed on would have cost him $3,900 less across the same year.
Daniel’s experience is not unusual. It is what happens when a hosting buyer compares quotes on a single variable (the headline $/kWh rate) when the real cost is spread across eight different variables, each labeled, bundled, or excluded differently by each provider. The gap between what you see on a quote and what you pay on an invoice is where most hosting decisions go wrong.
What follows is the framework our team uses when we help customers evaluate competing hosting quotes before they sign with anyone, including us. Eight specific line items. Three pricing models. Five diagnostic questions that force a provider to surface every hidden cost before you commit. If you use this framework on every quote you receive, you will end up at the lowest effective rate available to you. It may or may not be ours.
If hosting versus self-mining is still an open question for you, start with our home mining versus hosted mining breakdown, which covers the economic decision before you start comparing hosting providers.
The three hosting pricing models (and why each exists)
Before breaking down the line items, understand that hosting providers use three distinct pricing structures. Each is legitimate in different contexts. The model determines which line items are visible on the invoice and which are buried or excluded.
Model 1: All-in pricing
A single bundled $/kWh rate that includes every operating cost. What you see is what you pay. Setup, demand charges, management, security, monitoring, repairs for normal wear: all inside the quoted number. The trade-off is that the headline rate looks higher than bare-bones alternatives. MillionMiner’s $0.07 and $0.08 tiers are all-in.
All-in pricing is the right model when predictability matters more than absolute minimum cost. For buyers modeling 12-month profitability, the all-in rate is directly usable in a spreadsheet. You plug one number in and the output is accurate.
Model 2: Pass-through pricing
A base electricity rate quoted up front, with additional line items added as they apply: demand charges, transmission fees, management fees, setup costs, repair charges. The base rate looks competitive, sometimes aggressive. The effective rate after all pass-throughs can be 30-60% higher than the base. Pass-through pricing is legitimate when the underlying costs genuinely vary month to month (utility demand-charge structures, market-rate electricity in ERCOT or similar pools) and the provider wants the customer to benefit when costs fall. It becomes a problem when providers use the model to understate their quote during sales and surface the rest after the contract is signed.
Model 3: Hybrid pricing
Some costs bundled into the base rate, others passed through as line items. Most commonly, electricity and demand charges are bundled while repairs and setup are billed separately. This is the most common structure in retail hosting and the hardest to evaluate because you cannot tell from the quote alone which bucket a given cost falls into.
The analysis below from Simple Mining covers the three models in more operational detail if you want the pool-operator-side view. For buyers, the rule is simple: ask the provider which model they use and get it in writing. If they will not answer that question clearly, walk away.
The 8 line items every hosting contract must account for
Every hosting quote has to answer eight specific questions. Providers label them differently, bundle them differently, and exclude some of them. Your job as a buyer is to force each one to surface before you sign. If a provider will not or cannot answer one of these eight, you have identified a hidden cost.
On the math he did that evening at his kitchen table, Provider A was the obvious winner. Across eight S21 XPs pulling a nameplate 3,645W each, running 24/7 for a year, the $0.06 rate would save him roughly $6,100 compared to the $0.08 quote. Real money. He signed the Provider A contract the next morning.
Twelve months later he was paying an effective $0.102 per kilowatt-hour. Demand charges, a capacity fee, a management line item, a per-miner setup cost, and two repair invoices he had not expected. His actual 12-month bill came in $10,400 higher than what the Provider A quote implied. The $0.08 MillionMiner quote he passed on would have cost him $3,900 less across the same year.
Daniel’s experience is not unusual. It is what happens when a hosting buyer compares quotes on a single variable (the headline $/kWh rate) when the real cost is spread across eight different variables, each labeled, bundled, or excluded differently by each provider. The gap between what you see on a quote and what you pay on an invoice is where most hosting decisions go wrong.
What follows is the framework our team uses when we help customers evaluate competing hosting quotes before they sign with anyone, including us. Eight specific line items. Three pricing models. Five diagnostic questions that force a provider to surface every hidden cost before you commit. If you use this framework on every quote you receive, you will end up at the lowest effective rate available to you. It may or may not be ours.
If hosting versus self-mining is still an open question for you, start with our home mining versus hosted mining breakdown, which covers the economic decision before you start comparing hosting providers.
The three hosting pricing models (and why each exists)
Before breaking down the line items, understand that hosting providers use three distinct pricing structures. Each is legitimate in different contexts. The model determines which line items are visible on the invoice and which are buried or excluded.
Model 1: All-in pricing
A single bundled $/kWh rate that includes every operating cost. What you see is what you pay. Setup, demand charges, management, security, monitoring, repairs for normal wear: all inside the quoted number. The trade-off is that the headline rate looks higher than bare-bones alternatives. MillionMiner’s $0.07 and $0.08 tiers are all-in.
All-in pricing is the right model when predictability matters more than absolute minimum cost. For buyers modeling 12-month profitability, the all-in rate is directly usable in a spreadsheet. You plug one number in and the output is accurate.
Model 2: Pass-through pricing
A base electricity rate quoted up front, with additional line items added as they apply: demand charges, transmission fees, management fees, setup costs, repair charges. The base rate looks competitive, sometimes aggressive. The effective rate after all pass-throughs can be 30-60% higher than the base. Pass-through pricing is legitimate when the underlying costs genuinely vary month to month (utility demand-charge structures, market-rate electricity in ERCOT or similar pools) and the provider wants the customer to benefit when costs fall. It becomes a problem when providers use the model to understate their quote during sales and surface the rest after the contract is signed.
Model 3: Hybrid pricing
Some costs bundled into the base rate, others passed through as line items. Most commonly, electricity and demand charges are bundled while repairs and setup are billed separately. This is the most common structure in retail hosting and the hardest to evaluate because you cannot tell from the quote alone which bucket a given cost falls into.
The analysis below from Simple Mining covers the three models in more operational detail if you want the pool-operator-side view. For buyers, the rule is simple: ask the provider which model they use and get it in writing. If they will not answer that question clearly, walk away.
The 8 line items every hosting contract must account for
Every hosting quote has to answer eight specific questions. Providers label them differently, bundle them differently, and exclude some of them. Your job as a buyer is to force each one to surface before you sign. If a provider will not or cannot answer one of these eight, you have identified a hidden cost.
Line 1: Base electricity rate
The $/kWh number on the quote. In 2026 the real range for retail hosting in the US runs from roughly $0.04/kWh at institutional scale to $0.11/kWh at smaller hybrid facilities. Anything below $0.04 on a retail quote is almost always a pass-through base that excludes real costs. Anything above $0.10 is priced at or above what residential ratepayers are paying in most US states.
Verified competitor pricing across the market as of April 2026: Simple Mining at $0.065-0.075 promotional, Compass Mining at $0.075-0.095, EZ Blockchain starting at $0.067 all-in, BT-Miners at $0.10-0.11 plus $50 setup, Wattum starting at $0.089 with a 30-miner minimum, Bitkern at $0.075-0.0795. Public miners like Riot and CleanSpark pay $0.025-0.046 per their SEC filings and Earthjustice analysis, but those rates are not available to retail customers through any hosting channel.
Line 2: Demand charges
Demand charges are billed separately from electricity by the utility. They are based on your peak kilowatt draw during a billing period, not the total kilowatt-hours consumed. Per Giga Energy’s research, demand charges represent 30-50% of a mining facility’s total electricity bill, which translates to $0.02-$0.04 per kWh added on top of the base energy rate.
Bitcoin miners get hit harder by demand charges than almost any other customer class. Residential and commercial customers have natural load variability; their peak draw is higher than their average, but the gap creates buffer. Miners run at full capacity 24/7. Peak and average are the same number. Every kilowatt draws a demand charge, and the charge is spread across fewer kilowatt-hours because there is no off-peak period to dilute it.
A provider quoting $0.06/kWh base with demand charges unbundled is often quoting the equivalent of $0.08-0.10/kWh all-in. Ask the provider directly: is the demand charge included in your headline rate, or billed separately? If they say "separately" or "variable" or "depends on utility," that line item is hidden in the quote.
THE DEMAND CHARGE TRAP
At $10-$20 per kilowatt of peak demand, a 5 MW mining operation faces $50,000 to $100,000 in demand charges every month, separate from the kilowatt-hours they consume. For retail-scale hosted customers, the provider absorbs this in all-in models or passes it through in itemized models. The cost does not disappear; it just moves lines.
Line 3: Capacity and transmission fees
Capacity fees are reservation costs. You pay for the grid to hold capacity available for your operation whether you use it or not. Transmission fees cover the physical cost of delivering power from generation to your facility. These appear under different names depending on the utility, region, and whether the facility operates in an ISO or RTO market structure.
Typical cost impact: $0.01-0.02/kWh added to the base. Sometimes these fees are rolled into demand charges under a "facilities" or "infrastructure" line. Sometimes they are separate. The label changes; the cost does not.
Line 4: Facility management
Monitoring dashboards, physical security, on-site technicians, customer support staff, network infrastructure. Some providers bundle these into the base rate. Others bill them separately as a management fee ($0.005-0.01/kWh) or a per-miner monthly fee ($5-15 per machine).
The quality varies wildly. Compass Mining’s documentation states the hosting fee "covers electricity, facility security, customer service, and monitoring," but the specifics of what that means are rarely in the contract. A 24/7 support line that is technically available but takes 72 hours to respond is not the same as a dedicated account manager with a one-hour response SLA. Ask what "support" actually means in practice.
Line 5: Setup and deployment fees
One-time costs for intake, testing, labeling, racking, and cable work. Range from $0 (bundled into the hosting rate) to $150 per miner (some providers charge a flat fee for each unit deployed). For a 10-miner operation, a $100 setup fee per miner is $1,000 spent before the first satoshi is mined. This line item is often missing from initial quotes and surfaces only after the customer commits. Ask explicitly: what is the one-time cost to deploy each miner? Get the answer in writing.
Line 6: Repair coverage
ASICs fail. Fans die, hashboards develop thermal issues, power supplies blow. Repair coverage varies more across providers than any other line item. Three common structures: Included: The provider absorbs repair costs for normal wear during the contract period. Usually capped at 12 months or tied to manufacturer warranty. Conditional: Parts covered, labor billed hourly. Or in-warranty repairs covered but customer pays shipping both ways. Pass-through: Every repair billed separately. Customer covers parts, labor, and shipping. Some providers bill an hourly diagnostic fee even if no repair is needed.
On a fleet of 8-10 miners, the difference between included and pass-through repairs can be $1,500-4,000 per year. Ask specifically: what is covered, what is excluded, what is billed per incident.
Line 7: Uptime SLA
The promised uptime percentage and what happens when the provider misses it. Three elements matter: The promised percentage. 95% uptime sounds high but allows 18 days of downtime per year. 99.9% allows 8.7 hours. The gap is the difference between minor disruption and operational failure.
The measurement basis. Uptime measured at the facility vs at the miner. A facility can be 99.9% up while your specific miner sits dark for 48 hours waiting for a fan replacement.
The remedy when breached. Service credits on future billing, refunds of past billing, or nothing. Many contracts have SLA language with no meaningful remedy.
Line 8: Billing basis
Two distinct questions here. First: does the provider bill based on the miner’s nameplate wattage (the number on the spec sheet) or actual wall draw (measured consumption at the outlet)? Most ASICs pull 3-6% more than nameplate. Per Simple Mining’s analysis, an Antminer S21 XP with a 3,645W nameplate commonly measures 3,800-3,850W at the wall. A provider billing on wall draw charges more than one billing on nameplate.
Second: does the provider bill at a flat monthly rate regardless of uptime, or use precision billing that charges only for hours the miner actually hashed? Precision billing protects you during repair windows and downtime. Flat-rate billing does not.
MillionMiner uses precision billing at wall-draw measurement via the EPS dashboard. Over a 12-month period with typical 99%+ uptime, the difference between flat-rate and precision billing is usually 1-3% of total hosting cost. Across a 50-miner fleet, that is real money.
Daniel Park’s three quotes, played out
Return to Daniel in Los Angeles. Eight S21 XPs, three quotes, three different outcomes. Here is what each quote actually delivered across the 12-month contract period.
The $/kWh number on the quote. In 2026 the real range for retail hosting in the US runs from roughly $0.04/kWh at institutional scale to $0.11/kWh at smaller hybrid facilities. Anything below $0.04 on a retail quote is almost always a pass-through base that excludes real costs. Anything above $0.10 is priced at or above what residential ratepayers are paying in most US states.
Verified competitor pricing across the market as of April 2026: Simple Mining at $0.065-0.075 promotional, Compass Mining at $0.075-0.095, EZ Blockchain starting at $0.067 all-in, BT-Miners at $0.10-0.11 plus $50 setup, Wattum starting at $0.089 with a 30-miner minimum, Bitkern at $0.075-0.0795. Public miners like Riot and CleanSpark pay $0.025-0.046 per their SEC filings and Earthjustice analysis, but those rates are not available to retail customers through any hosting channel.
Line 2: Demand charges
Demand charges are billed separately from electricity by the utility. They are based on your peak kilowatt draw during a billing period, not the total kilowatt-hours consumed. Per Giga Energy’s research, demand charges represent 30-50% of a mining facility’s total electricity bill, which translates to $0.02-$0.04 per kWh added on top of the base energy rate.
Bitcoin miners get hit harder by demand charges than almost any other customer class. Residential and commercial customers have natural load variability; their peak draw is higher than their average, but the gap creates buffer. Miners run at full capacity 24/7. Peak and average are the same number. Every kilowatt draws a demand charge, and the charge is spread across fewer kilowatt-hours because there is no off-peak period to dilute it.
A provider quoting $0.06/kWh base with demand charges unbundled is often quoting the equivalent of $0.08-0.10/kWh all-in. Ask the provider directly: is the demand charge included in your headline rate, or billed separately? If they say "separately" or "variable" or "depends on utility," that line item is hidden in the quote.
THE DEMAND CHARGE TRAP
At $10-$20 per kilowatt of peak demand, a 5 MW mining operation faces $50,000 to $100,000 in demand charges every month, separate from the kilowatt-hours they consume. For retail-scale hosted customers, the provider absorbs this in all-in models or passes it through in itemized models. The cost does not disappear; it just moves lines.
Line 3: Capacity and transmission fees
Capacity fees are reservation costs. You pay for the grid to hold capacity available for your operation whether you use it or not. Transmission fees cover the physical cost of delivering power from generation to your facility. These appear under different names depending on the utility, region, and whether the facility operates in an ISO or RTO market structure.
Typical cost impact: $0.01-0.02/kWh added to the base. Sometimes these fees are rolled into demand charges under a "facilities" or "infrastructure" line. Sometimes they are separate. The label changes; the cost does not.
Line 4: Facility management
Monitoring dashboards, physical security, on-site technicians, customer support staff, network infrastructure. Some providers bundle these into the base rate. Others bill them separately as a management fee ($0.005-0.01/kWh) or a per-miner monthly fee ($5-15 per machine).
The quality varies wildly. Compass Mining’s documentation states the hosting fee "covers electricity, facility security, customer service, and monitoring," but the specifics of what that means are rarely in the contract. A 24/7 support line that is technically available but takes 72 hours to respond is not the same as a dedicated account manager with a one-hour response SLA. Ask what "support" actually means in practice.
Line 5: Setup and deployment fees
One-time costs for intake, testing, labeling, racking, and cable work. Range from $0 (bundled into the hosting rate) to $150 per miner (some providers charge a flat fee for each unit deployed). For a 10-miner operation, a $100 setup fee per miner is $1,000 spent before the first satoshi is mined. This line item is often missing from initial quotes and surfaces only after the customer commits. Ask explicitly: what is the one-time cost to deploy each miner? Get the answer in writing.
Line 6: Repair coverage
ASICs fail. Fans die, hashboards develop thermal issues, power supplies blow. Repair coverage varies more across providers than any other line item. Three common structures: Included: The provider absorbs repair costs for normal wear during the contract period. Usually capped at 12 months or tied to manufacturer warranty. Conditional: Parts covered, labor billed hourly. Or in-warranty repairs covered but customer pays shipping both ways. Pass-through: Every repair billed separately. Customer covers parts, labor, and shipping. Some providers bill an hourly diagnostic fee even if no repair is needed.
On a fleet of 8-10 miners, the difference between included and pass-through repairs can be $1,500-4,000 per year. Ask specifically: what is covered, what is excluded, what is billed per incident.
Line 7: Uptime SLA
The promised uptime percentage and what happens when the provider misses it. Three elements matter: The promised percentage. 95% uptime sounds high but allows 18 days of downtime per year. 99.9% allows 8.7 hours. The gap is the difference between minor disruption and operational failure.
The measurement basis. Uptime measured at the facility vs at the miner. A facility can be 99.9% up while your specific miner sits dark for 48 hours waiting for a fan replacement.
The remedy when breached. Service credits on future billing, refunds of past billing, or nothing. Many contracts have SLA language with no meaningful remedy.
Line 8: Billing basis
Two distinct questions here. First: does the provider bill based on the miner’s nameplate wattage (the number on the spec sheet) or actual wall draw (measured consumption at the outlet)? Most ASICs pull 3-6% more than nameplate. Per Simple Mining’s analysis, an Antminer S21 XP with a 3,645W nameplate commonly measures 3,800-3,850W at the wall. A provider billing on wall draw charges more than one billing on nameplate.
Second: does the provider bill at a flat monthly rate regardless of uptime, or use precision billing that charges only for hours the miner actually hashed? Precision billing protects you during repair windows and downtime. Flat-rate billing does not.
MillionMiner uses precision billing at wall-draw measurement via the EPS dashboard. Over a 12-month period with typical 99%+ uptime, the difference between flat-rate and precision billing is usually 1-3% of total hosting cost. Across a 50-miner fleet, that is real money.
Daniel Park’s three quotes, played out
Return to Daniel in Los Angeles. Eight S21 XPs, three quotes, three different outcomes. Here is what each quote actually delivered across the 12-month contract period.
Provider A: $0.06/kWh quoted, $0.102/kWh actual
Pass-through model. The $0.06 base was accurate. Demand charges added $0.028/kWh spread across his average consumption. Capacity and transmission fees added another $0.009. A management fee added $0.005. Setup cost $800 one-time across eight miners ($100 each). Two repair incidents (a failed PSU and a fan replacement) were billed at $340 each for labor plus parts. The SLA language promised 95% uptime with no credit mechanism; a 3-day outage in July cost Daniel ~$180 in lost revenue with no offset.
Rolled together across 12 months, his effective rate landed at $0.102/kWh. On 8 miners at roughly 3,800W wall draw each, that is ~$27,100 in annual hosting cost versus the $16,000 the $0.06 quote implied.
Provider B: $0.075/kWh quoted, $0.085/kWh actual Hybrid model. Demand charges were partially bundled (the base absorbed the first tier, excess passed through). Capacity fees bundled. Management included. Setup cost $400 one-time ($50 per miner). Repairs covered parts only; labor billed at provider hourly rate. The 98% SLA came with service credits but required formal written requests that Daniel only submitted once. Effective rate across 12 months: $0.085/kWh. Annual hosting: ~$22,700. Better than Provider A but still higher than the quote implied.
MillionMiner: $0.08/kWh quoted, $0.080/kWh actual All-in model. Every line item from the framework bundled into the base rate. No demand charges, no capacity fees, no management fees, no setup cost. Repairs included for the duration of the hosting contract. 99.9% uptime SLA with automatic precision-billing credit for any downtime exceeding the threshold. Wall-draw precision billing.
Effective rate across 12 months: $0.080/kWh. Annual hosting: ~$21,300. The headline rate and the actual rate matched because there was nothing hidden to surface.
Over the 12-month period, Daniel paid $5,800 more hosting with Provider A than he would have paid with MillionMiner. At the Bitcoin prices that prevailed through 2026 (around $74,000 per the latest Hashrate Index data), that gap equals roughly 0.078 BTC. On an 8-miner operation that is the difference between a good year and a great year.
Why sub-$0.05/kWh retail hosting does not structurally exist
If you have been quoted $0.03, $0.04, or "from $0.05/kWh" by a retail hosting provider, the math does not add up to a sustainable operation. Here is why.
Per Earthjustice research on utility structures, large publicly-traded miners (Riot, Cipher Mining, CleanSpark) pay $0.025-0.046/kWh via direct sovereign-scale utility contracts tied to specific facilities, grid flexibility agreements, and often curtailment obligations during peak demand events. These rates are not transferable to a retail hosting customer. They are negotiated at 100-1000+ MW scale with specific sites, specific utilities, and specific political or regulatory arrangements.
The industrial-grade rate available to retail hosting customers in the US as of 2026 starts around $0.06-0.07/kWh before accounting for demand charges, capacity fees, management costs, and facility overhead. By the time those are added in, the all-in delivered rate to a customer is rarely below $0.075/kWh if the provider is going to stay in business.
A provider advertising "from $0.04/kWh" is either:
(1) quoting a specific customer class you do not qualify for,
(2) quoting a base rate with major pass-throughs excluded,
(3) operating in a politically unstable jurisdiction where the real cost will be higher within 12 months, or
(4) running a model that cannot sustain support, uptime, or hardware longevity and is being subsidized by something that will eventually change.
Our hosting team reviews migrated customer invoices from previous providers on a regular basis. The pattern is consistent: the headline number is always lower than our quote. The effective number after six months of actual invoices is usually higher. That is the gap the 8-line-item framework exists to expose.
What MillionMiner’s $0.07 and $0.08 rates actually include
Transparent breakdown of what is bundled into each of our tiers, mapped directly to the 8-line-item framework. No asterisks, no "as applicable" language, no line items we quote separately after you sign.
Pass-through model. The $0.06 base was accurate. Demand charges added $0.028/kWh spread across his average consumption. Capacity and transmission fees added another $0.009. A management fee added $0.005. Setup cost $800 one-time across eight miners ($100 each). Two repair incidents (a failed PSU and a fan replacement) were billed at $340 each for labor plus parts. The SLA language promised 95% uptime with no credit mechanism; a 3-day outage in July cost Daniel ~$180 in lost revenue with no offset.
Rolled together across 12 months, his effective rate landed at $0.102/kWh. On 8 miners at roughly 3,800W wall draw each, that is ~$27,100 in annual hosting cost versus the $16,000 the $0.06 quote implied.
Provider B: $0.075/kWh quoted, $0.085/kWh actual Hybrid model. Demand charges were partially bundled (the base absorbed the first tier, excess passed through). Capacity fees bundled. Management included. Setup cost $400 one-time ($50 per miner). Repairs covered parts only; labor billed at provider hourly rate. The 98% SLA came with service credits but required formal written requests that Daniel only submitted once. Effective rate across 12 months: $0.085/kWh. Annual hosting: ~$22,700. Better than Provider A but still higher than the quote implied.
MillionMiner: $0.08/kWh quoted, $0.080/kWh actual All-in model. Every line item from the framework bundled into the base rate. No demand charges, no capacity fees, no management fees, no setup cost. Repairs included for the duration of the hosting contract. 99.9% uptime SLA with automatic precision-billing credit for any downtime exceeding the threshold. Wall-draw precision billing.
Effective rate across 12 months: $0.080/kWh. Annual hosting: ~$21,300. The headline rate and the actual rate matched because there was nothing hidden to surface.
Over the 12-month period, Daniel paid $5,800 more hosting with Provider A than he would have paid with MillionMiner. At the Bitcoin prices that prevailed through 2026 (around $74,000 per the latest Hashrate Index data), that gap equals roughly 0.078 BTC. On an 8-miner operation that is the difference between a good year and a great year.
Why sub-$0.05/kWh retail hosting does not structurally exist
If you have been quoted $0.03, $0.04, or "from $0.05/kWh" by a retail hosting provider, the math does not add up to a sustainable operation. Here is why.
Per Earthjustice research on utility structures, large publicly-traded miners (Riot, Cipher Mining, CleanSpark) pay $0.025-0.046/kWh via direct sovereign-scale utility contracts tied to specific facilities, grid flexibility agreements, and often curtailment obligations during peak demand events. These rates are not transferable to a retail hosting customer. They are negotiated at 100-1000+ MW scale with specific sites, specific utilities, and specific political or regulatory arrangements.
The industrial-grade rate available to retail hosting customers in the US as of 2026 starts around $0.06-0.07/kWh before accounting for demand charges, capacity fees, management costs, and facility overhead. By the time those are added in, the all-in delivered rate to a customer is rarely below $0.075/kWh if the provider is going to stay in business.
A provider advertising "from $0.04/kWh" is either:
(1) quoting a specific customer class you do not qualify for,
(2) quoting a base rate with major pass-throughs excluded,
(3) operating in a politically unstable jurisdiction where the real cost will be higher within 12 months, or
(4) running a model that cannot sustain support, uptime, or hardware longevity and is being subsidized by something that will eventually change.
Our hosting team reviews migrated customer invoices from previous providers on a regular basis. The pattern is consistent: the headline number is always lower than our quote. The effective number after six months of actual invoices is usually higher. That is the gap the 8-line-item framework exists to expose.
What MillionMiner’s $0.07 and $0.08 rates actually include
Transparent breakdown of what is bundled into each of our tiers, mapped directly to the 8-line-item framework. No asterisks, no "as applicable" language, no line items we quote separately after you sign.
Standard Hosting at $0.08/kWh
For any miner count from one to fifty. Bundled into the $0.08 rate:
> Base electricity at the $0.08 rate with demand charges and capacity fees absorbed into the bundle.
> Facility management including monitoring dashboard, physical security, on-site technicians, and 24/7 support via WhatsApp, email, or call.
> Free miner setup with instant activation for plug-and-play units. No per-miner deployment fee.
> Free repairs for hardware issues during the hosting period, handled by certified technicians inside the facility.
> 99.9% uptime SLA with precision billing so you only pay for hours your miner actually hashed.
> Full dashboard access on desktop and mobile (iOS and Android) for real-time monitoring of hashrate, uptime, temperature, power draw, and payouts.
Corporate Plan at $0.07/kWh
For deployments of 50+ miners. Same inclusions as Standard Hosting, plus:
> Priority 24/7 support line with under one-hour response time.
> Personal account manager assigned to your deployment.
> Full dashboard control including remote reboot, pool switching, and fleet-level fleet management tools.
The $0.07 Corporate rate is not a volume discount on the $0.08 Standard rate. It is a separate tier that applies only at 50+ miner scale because the operational efficiency of managing larger deployments allows us to absorb more of the fixed costs per unit. Below 50 miners, the math does not support $0.07 without compromising the service level.
Free Trial at $0.00/kWh
Run one miner for 24 hours at zero cost. Activated within 24 hours of signup. Full dashboard access, all core features. This exists because the single biggest objection we hear from first-time hosting customers is "how do I know your infrastructure is real before I commit." The trial is the answer. You can verify uptime, hashrate stability, and payout flow in a day.
The infrastructure that justifies the rate
Four US facilities totaling 95 megawatts of capacity. As of April 2026, 30,000+ miners hosted at 99.9% uptime across the network, generating 1.79 EH/s of combined hashing power. The geographic and power-source spread matters because it insulates the operation from region-specific risks.
> Nebraska Facility (25 MW). Industrial-grade supply via the Nebraska Public Power Grid. Stable regulatory environment. Nebraska has been among the most miner-friendly US states since the 2021 China exodus.
> Mississippi Facility (20 MW). Clean energy mix combining natural gas and renewables. Lower grid congestion than Texas, fewer curtailment events than the ERCOT footprint.
> Missouri Facility A (25 MW). Hydro-backed grid. The lowest-variance cost basis in our portfolio because hydroelectric generation does not follow the same seasonal price swings as gas-fired power.
> Missouri Facility B (25 MW). Redundant grid connection via Tier-1 utility feed. Second Missouri site specifically to add geographic redundancy within the same regulatory framework.
For buyers weighing whether our operational claims match reality, our Is MillionMiner Legit post covers our current Trustpilot rating (4.4 across 109+ reviews), our history, what we have gotten wrong, and the four checks any prospective hosting customer should run on any hardware or hosting seller before committing capital.
Five diagnostic questions that reveal what a provider is hiding
Before signing any hosting contract, ask these five questions and get the answers in writing. Every hidden cost surfaces under at least one of them.
> Which pricing model do you use: all-in, pass-through, or hybrid? If they cannot answer this cleanly or use words like "variable" or "depends," assume pass-through with significant hidden costs.
> Are demand charges and capacity fees included in the quoted rate or billed separately? If separately, ask for the most recent 3 months of actual pass-through amounts on comparable fleet sizes.
> What is the one-time setup or deployment fee per miner? If the answer is "it depends," assume $100+ per miner and build it into your model.
> What repairs are included, what are excluded, and what are billed per incident? Get specific scenarios: hashboard failure, PSU replacement, fan swap, complete unit replacement. Each should have a clear cost answer.
> What is the billing basis, and what is the uptime SLA remedy if breached? Wall-draw precision billing with automatic credits is the gold standard. Nameplate flat-rate billing with no remedy is the opposite.
HOW TO CONVERT ANY QUOTE TO EFFECTIVE $/KWH
Take the base rate. Add demand charges (0 if bundled, $0.02-0.04 if pass-through). Add capacity fees (0 if bundled, $0.01-0.02 if pass-through). Add management fees (0 if bundled, $0.005-0.01 if pass-through). Add setup cost amortized per kWh across the contract term. Add expected repair cost per kWh at 1-3% of revenue. The result is your true comparable rate. Do this math on every quote before signing anything.
Frequently asked questions
What is a fair all-in hosting rate for Bitcoin mining in 2026?
For retail customers in the US as of April 2026, a fair all-in rate ranges from $0.075 to $0.095 per kilowatt-hour depending on fleet size, facility location, and service level. Anything below $0.075 from a retail provider almost always has pass-through costs that push the effective rate higher. Anything above $0.10 is priced above what makes economic sense for most ASIC hardware at current Bitcoin prices and network difficulty.
Why are public miners like Riot and CleanSpark paying $0.03/kWh when I cannot find hosting below $0.07?
Public miners negotiate direct utility contracts at 100-1000+ megawatt scale, usually tied to specific sites, curtailment obligations during peak demand, and political or regulatory arrangements that are not transferable to retail hosting customers. Their rates are real, but they are not available to you through any retail channel. Retail hosting inherits a slice of industrial-grade power but adds facility overhead, management cost, and margin on top.
What are demand charges and why do they matter for Bitcoin miners specifically?
Demand charges are billed by utilities based on your peak kilowatt draw during a billing period, separate from the kilowatt-hours you consume. Because Bitcoin miners run at constant full capacity 24/7 with no natural load variability, demand charges represent 30-50% of the total electricity bill per Giga Energy research, which adds $0.02-0.04/kWh on top of the base energy rate. Residential and commercial customers have peaks and valleys that dilute demand charges across more consumption; miners do not.
Is nameplate billing cheaper than wall-draw billing?
Nameplate billing typically looks cheaper on paper because the nameplate wattage on the spec sheet is 3-6% lower than actual wall draw. An Antminer S21 XP has a 3,645W nameplate but commonly measures 3,800-3,850W at the wall. A provider billing nameplate charges less than a provider billing wall-draw at the same per-kWh rate. The trade-off is that nameplate billing underpays the utility, so the provider compensates by building that gap into their headline rate. The two models end up close to identical over 12 months.
What is precision billing and why does it matter?
Precision billing charges you only for hours your miner actually hashed, not for hours it sat offline for repair, network issues, or facility downtime. If your miner is down for 48 hours during a PSU replacement, precision billing does not charge you for those 48 hours of power. Flat-rate billing charges the full month regardless. Over a 12-month period at typical 99%+ uptime, the difference is usually 1-3% of hosting cost. For larger fleets this adds up.
How do I compare Compass Mining, Simple Mining, Sazmining, and MillionMiner on an apples-to-apples basis?
Get a written quote from each that itemizes all 8 line items from the framework. For each quote, convert to effective $/kWh using the formula in the callout above. The provider with the lowest effective rate (not the lowest headline rate) is the apples-to-apples winner. Beyond pricing, compare their uptime SLA, repair coverage specifics, and billing basis. Two providers at the same effective $/kWh can still deliver very different experiences based on the service quality underneath.
What is a reasonable setup fee per miner?
Industry standard ranges from $0 (bundled into the hosting rate) to $150 per miner. MillionMiner charges $0 setup for both Standard and Corporate plans. For providers that charge a setup fee, anything above $100 per miner for simple plug-and-play units is high. For custom deployments requiring electrical work or network configuration, higher fees can be justified but should be quoted as a separate engineering estimate, not a flat per-miner fee.
Should I choose the lowest-priced hosting quote?
No. Choose the lowest effective $/kWh after applying the 8-line-item framework, factoring in the uptime SLA, repair coverage, and operational service level. Headline rate is only one of eight variables. Daniel Park’s experience in this guide illustrates the risk of optimizing for the quoted number alone: his cheapest quote became his most expensive bill after 12 months. For context on how hosting economics interact with hardware choice and Bitcoin price, see our analysis on the real cost to mine 1 Bitcoin.
What happens if my hosting provider goes out of business or has a billing dispute?
Your miner remains your property throughout any hosting relationship. In well-structured contracts, you can retrieve your hardware within a defined notice period (usually 30-60 days) regardless of disputes. That said, retrieval logistics are expensive and slow, so the better protection is picking a provider with a visible operational track record. Lyn Alden’s detailed analysis of Compass Mining’s billing and support issues in 2022 is a useful case study in what can go wrong when a provider’s operational discipline slips.
How does hosting cost factor into my 12-month mining profitability?
Electricity represents 60-80% of total mining costs according to Blocklr’s 2026 analysis, so your effective $/kWh is the single biggest profitability variable you control. At current Bitcoin prices ($74K range), network hashrate (1.004 ZH/s), and difficulty (135.59T), the breakeven effective hosting rate for efficient S21-class hardware is around $0.08/kWh. Below that you operate at positive margins; above that you operate thinly or at a loss. Our full profitability scenarios cover five specific hardware and rate combinations with real numbers.
The bigger picture
Daniel Park signed with us in April 2026 after the Provider A contract expired. Eight S21 XPs moved to Missouri Facility A. First month invoice: $1,780 at the $0.08 rate, matching the quote within rounding. Twelve months later he was mining at the effective rate he had been promised, with 99.94% uptime, zero repair invoices beyond what was bundled, and a dashboard that showed him every kilowatt-hour consumed by every miner in real time.
That outcome is not unique to us. It is what happens when a hosting buyer applies a framework to compare quotes instead of comparing headline numbers. The 8-line-item framework is transferable; use it on us, use it on our competitors, use it on any hosting quote you receive. If the framework points to a provider that is not MillionMiner, that is the right decision for you.
If you are still mapping the full economic picture of hosted mining, our home versus hosted mining breakdown covers the underlying decision. If you are evaluating which hardware to host, the best Bitcoin miners ranking and S23 Hydro vs S21 XP comparison cover the hardware side. And if you want to see the hosting infrastructure in action before committing any capital, the free trial runs one miner for 24 hours at zero cost.
Your hosting rate is the single largest operating variable you control. Spend the hour applying the framework. The math will pay for itself in the first 60 days.
For any miner count from one to fifty. Bundled into the $0.08 rate:
> Base electricity at the $0.08 rate with demand charges and capacity fees absorbed into the bundle.
> Facility management including monitoring dashboard, physical security, on-site technicians, and 24/7 support via WhatsApp, email, or call.
> Free miner setup with instant activation for plug-and-play units. No per-miner deployment fee.
> Free repairs for hardware issues during the hosting period, handled by certified technicians inside the facility.
> 99.9% uptime SLA with precision billing so you only pay for hours your miner actually hashed.
> Full dashboard access on desktop and mobile (iOS and Android) for real-time monitoring of hashrate, uptime, temperature, power draw, and payouts.
Corporate Plan at $0.07/kWh
For deployments of 50+ miners. Same inclusions as Standard Hosting, plus:
> Priority 24/7 support line with under one-hour response time.
> Personal account manager assigned to your deployment.
> Full dashboard control including remote reboot, pool switching, and fleet-level fleet management tools.
The $0.07 Corporate rate is not a volume discount on the $0.08 Standard rate. It is a separate tier that applies only at 50+ miner scale because the operational efficiency of managing larger deployments allows us to absorb more of the fixed costs per unit. Below 50 miners, the math does not support $0.07 without compromising the service level.
Free Trial at $0.00/kWh
Run one miner for 24 hours at zero cost. Activated within 24 hours of signup. Full dashboard access, all core features. This exists because the single biggest objection we hear from first-time hosting customers is "how do I know your infrastructure is real before I commit." The trial is the answer. You can verify uptime, hashrate stability, and payout flow in a day.
The infrastructure that justifies the rate
Four US facilities totaling 95 megawatts of capacity. As of April 2026, 30,000+ miners hosted at 99.9% uptime across the network, generating 1.79 EH/s of combined hashing power. The geographic and power-source spread matters because it insulates the operation from region-specific risks.
> Nebraska Facility (25 MW). Industrial-grade supply via the Nebraska Public Power Grid. Stable regulatory environment. Nebraska has been among the most miner-friendly US states since the 2021 China exodus.
> Mississippi Facility (20 MW). Clean energy mix combining natural gas and renewables. Lower grid congestion than Texas, fewer curtailment events than the ERCOT footprint.
> Missouri Facility A (25 MW). Hydro-backed grid. The lowest-variance cost basis in our portfolio because hydroelectric generation does not follow the same seasonal price swings as gas-fired power.
> Missouri Facility B (25 MW). Redundant grid connection via Tier-1 utility feed. Second Missouri site specifically to add geographic redundancy within the same regulatory framework.
For buyers weighing whether our operational claims match reality, our Is MillionMiner Legit post covers our current Trustpilot rating (4.4 across 109+ reviews), our history, what we have gotten wrong, and the four checks any prospective hosting customer should run on any hardware or hosting seller before committing capital.
Five diagnostic questions that reveal what a provider is hiding
Before signing any hosting contract, ask these five questions and get the answers in writing. Every hidden cost surfaces under at least one of them.
> Which pricing model do you use: all-in, pass-through, or hybrid? If they cannot answer this cleanly or use words like "variable" or "depends," assume pass-through with significant hidden costs.
> Are demand charges and capacity fees included in the quoted rate or billed separately? If separately, ask for the most recent 3 months of actual pass-through amounts on comparable fleet sizes.
> What is the one-time setup or deployment fee per miner? If the answer is "it depends," assume $100+ per miner and build it into your model.
> What repairs are included, what are excluded, and what are billed per incident? Get specific scenarios: hashboard failure, PSU replacement, fan swap, complete unit replacement. Each should have a clear cost answer.
> What is the billing basis, and what is the uptime SLA remedy if breached? Wall-draw precision billing with automatic credits is the gold standard. Nameplate flat-rate billing with no remedy is the opposite.
HOW TO CONVERT ANY QUOTE TO EFFECTIVE $/KWH
Take the base rate. Add demand charges (0 if bundled, $0.02-0.04 if pass-through). Add capacity fees (0 if bundled, $0.01-0.02 if pass-through). Add management fees (0 if bundled, $0.005-0.01 if pass-through). Add setup cost amortized per kWh across the contract term. Add expected repair cost per kWh at 1-3% of revenue. The result is your true comparable rate. Do this math on every quote before signing anything.
Frequently asked questions
What is a fair all-in hosting rate for Bitcoin mining in 2026?
For retail customers in the US as of April 2026, a fair all-in rate ranges from $0.075 to $0.095 per kilowatt-hour depending on fleet size, facility location, and service level. Anything below $0.075 from a retail provider almost always has pass-through costs that push the effective rate higher. Anything above $0.10 is priced above what makes economic sense for most ASIC hardware at current Bitcoin prices and network difficulty.
Why are public miners like Riot and CleanSpark paying $0.03/kWh when I cannot find hosting below $0.07?
Public miners negotiate direct utility contracts at 100-1000+ megawatt scale, usually tied to specific sites, curtailment obligations during peak demand, and political or regulatory arrangements that are not transferable to retail hosting customers. Their rates are real, but they are not available to you through any retail channel. Retail hosting inherits a slice of industrial-grade power but adds facility overhead, management cost, and margin on top.
What are demand charges and why do they matter for Bitcoin miners specifically?
Demand charges are billed by utilities based on your peak kilowatt draw during a billing period, separate from the kilowatt-hours you consume. Because Bitcoin miners run at constant full capacity 24/7 with no natural load variability, demand charges represent 30-50% of the total electricity bill per Giga Energy research, which adds $0.02-0.04/kWh on top of the base energy rate. Residential and commercial customers have peaks and valleys that dilute demand charges across more consumption; miners do not.
Is nameplate billing cheaper than wall-draw billing?
Nameplate billing typically looks cheaper on paper because the nameplate wattage on the spec sheet is 3-6% lower than actual wall draw. An Antminer S21 XP has a 3,645W nameplate but commonly measures 3,800-3,850W at the wall. A provider billing nameplate charges less than a provider billing wall-draw at the same per-kWh rate. The trade-off is that nameplate billing underpays the utility, so the provider compensates by building that gap into their headline rate. The two models end up close to identical over 12 months.
What is precision billing and why does it matter?
Precision billing charges you only for hours your miner actually hashed, not for hours it sat offline for repair, network issues, or facility downtime. If your miner is down for 48 hours during a PSU replacement, precision billing does not charge you for those 48 hours of power. Flat-rate billing charges the full month regardless. Over a 12-month period at typical 99%+ uptime, the difference is usually 1-3% of hosting cost. For larger fleets this adds up.
How do I compare Compass Mining, Simple Mining, Sazmining, and MillionMiner on an apples-to-apples basis?
Get a written quote from each that itemizes all 8 line items from the framework. For each quote, convert to effective $/kWh using the formula in the callout above. The provider with the lowest effective rate (not the lowest headline rate) is the apples-to-apples winner. Beyond pricing, compare their uptime SLA, repair coverage specifics, and billing basis. Two providers at the same effective $/kWh can still deliver very different experiences based on the service quality underneath.
What is a reasonable setup fee per miner?
Industry standard ranges from $0 (bundled into the hosting rate) to $150 per miner. MillionMiner charges $0 setup for both Standard and Corporate plans. For providers that charge a setup fee, anything above $100 per miner for simple plug-and-play units is high. For custom deployments requiring electrical work or network configuration, higher fees can be justified but should be quoted as a separate engineering estimate, not a flat per-miner fee.
Should I choose the lowest-priced hosting quote?
No. Choose the lowest effective $/kWh after applying the 8-line-item framework, factoring in the uptime SLA, repair coverage, and operational service level. Headline rate is only one of eight variables. Daniel Park’s experience in this guide illustrates the risk of optimizing for the quoted number alone: his cheapest quote became his most expensive bill after 12 months. For context on how hosting economics interact with hardware choice and Bitcoin price, see our analysis on the real cost to mine 1 Bitcoin.
What happens if my hosting provider goes out of business or has a billing dispute?
Your miner remains your property throughout any hosting relationship. In well-structured contracts, you can retrieve your hardware within a defined notice period (usually 30-60 days) regardless of disputes. That said, retrieval logistics are expensive and slow, so the better protection is picking a provider with a visible operational track record. Lyn Alden’s detailed analysis of Compass Mining’s billing and support issues in 2022 is a useful case study in what can go wrong when a provider’s operational discipline slips.
How does hosting cost factor into my 12-month mining profitability?
Electricity represents 60-80% of total mining costs according to Blocklr’s 2026 analysis, so your effective $/kWh is the single biggest profitability variable you control. At current Bitcoin prices ($74K range), network hashrate (1.004 ZH/s), and difficulty (135.59T), the breakeven effective hosting rate for efficient S21-class hardware is around $0.08/kWh. Below that you operate at positive margins; above that you operate thinly or at a loss. Our full profitability scenarios cover five specific hardware and rate combinations with real numbers.
The bigger picture
Daniel Park signed with us in April 2026 after the Provider A contract expired. Eight S21 XPs moved to Missouri Facility A. First month invoice: $1,780 at the $0.08 rate, matching the quote within rounding. Twelve months later he was mining at the effective rate he had been promised, with 99.94% uptime, zero repair invoices beyond what was bundled, and a dashboard that showed him every kilowatt-hour consumed by every miner in real time.
That outcome is not unique to us. It is what happens when a hosting buyer applies a framework to compare quotes instead of comparing headline numbers. The 8-line-item framework is transferable; use it on us, use it on our competitors, use it on any hosting quote you receive. If the framework points to a provider that is not MillionMiner, that is the right decision for you.
If you are still mapping the full economic picture of hosted mining, our home versus hosted mining breakdown covers the underlying decision. If you are evaluating which hardware to host, the best Bitcoin miners ranking and S23 Hydro vs S21 XP comparison cover the hardware side. And if you want to see the hosting infrastructure in action before committing any capital, the free trial runs one miner for 24 hours at zero cost.
Your hosting rate is the single largest operating variable you control. Spend the hour applying the framework. The math will pay for itself in the first 60 days.