Bitcoin mining hosting cost: one number per kWh for every quote

Every hosting quote answers the same questions, even when it leaves some blank:

• The rate per kWh, and what it covers. Power alone, or power plus cooling, network, monitoring and hands on site? Ask which fees sit outside it.
• The billing basis. Metered draw, nameplate or contracted kW, or a flat fee per machine. It decides which kWh the rate is multiplied by.
• Setup. Usually a one-time charge per machine for receiving, racking and commissioning.
• Deposit. How much, when it comes back, and what can be deducted from it.
• Minimum. A floor in machines or kW of connected load. Below it, you pay for capacity you are not using.
• Term and exit. Initial term, renewal, notice, early exit fees, and the cost of shipping machines out.
• Curtailment. How many hours a year the site expects to power down, and whether those hours are billed.
• Prepay. Any discount for paying ahead, and which rate it applies to.
• Separately billed items. Repair labour and parts, insurance, and anything else listed outside the rate.

A quote that leaves several of these to "standard terms" is not cheaper because the numbers are missing. It is incomplete. How to choose a bitcoin mining host turns these lines into questions to send back before you sign.

Pick one period, usually a month, and divide everything you pay in it by the kWh your machines actually drew. That is the effective cost per kWh drawn, the one number that lets quotes on different bases sit in the same column.

1. Estimate the kWh drawn. Average draw in kW × the hours the machines actually run, with curtailment hours taken out. A host that meters at the PDU can give you this per machine.
2. Work out the power charge on the quote's own basis. Metered: rate × kWh drawn. Nameplate: rate × nameplate kW × every hour billed. Flat fee: fee × machines.
3. Apply the minimum. If there is one, the charge is whichever is larger: step 2 or the minimum.
4. Spread the one-time charges. Divide the setup fee, and any part of the deposit you will not get back, by the months you plan to host.
5. Add the recurring extras billed outside the rate.
6. Divide total charges for the period by kWh drawn in the period.

Effective cost per kWh drawn = (power charge on the quote's basis + recurring fees + one-time charges ÷ months hosted) ÷ kWh actually drawn.

On a metered quote with no extras, the effective cost equals the headline rate. On other bases, the gap grows with every hour a machine sits idle or draws below its rating.

Illustration only. Every figure in this section is a made-up round number chosen to make the arithmetic easy to follow. None of them is a market rate, a typical rate or a Proton rate.

Say you have one machine with a 6 kW nameplate. A 30-day month has 720 hours. Say the site is curtailed for 40 of them, and while running the machine averages 5.5 kW at the PDU. It draws 5.5 × 680 = 3,740 kWh in the month. Three hosts quote it:

• Quote A: 10 cents per kWh, billed on nameplate for every hour. 6 kW × 720 hours = 4,320 kWh billed, or 432 dollars. Divided by the 3,740 kWh drawn: about 11.6 cents per kWh drawn.
• Quote B: 11 cents per kWh, billed on metered draw. 3,740 kWh × 11 cents = 411.40 dollars: 11.0 cents per kWh drawn.
• Quote C: a flat 420 dollars per machine per month. 420 dollars ÷ 3,740 kWh: about 11.2 cents per kWh drawn.

In this month, the quote with the highest rate per kWh costs the least per kWh drawn. Now change two assumptions: no curtailment, and the machine draws its full 6 kW all month, 4,320 kWh. Quote A comes to 10.0 cents, quote B stays at 11.0 cents and quote C drops to about 9.7 cents. The order has reversed.

No billing basis is cheaper in general. Here the nameplate and flat-fee quotes looked worse when the machine idled and better when it ran flat out, while the metered quote cost the same per kWh drawn either way. Run your own quotes through the formula at more than one level of draw and curtailment.

Setup is one-time, so spread it over the months you expect to stay. Continuing the illustration: a 120-dollar setup fee over 12 months is 10 dollars a month, about 0.3 cents on each of the 3,740 kWh drawn. Over three months it adds about 1.1 cents.

A deposit is not a cost if it comes back in full, so keep it out of the per-kWh figure and note how much cash it ties up and for how long. If part of it is kept on early exit or forfeited, count that part as a one-time charge in the cases where it applies.

A minimum changes the bill only when you are below it. Say a quote sets a minimum of 100 kW of connected load and your fleet is 16 machines at 6 kW, or 96 kW. You either add a machine or pay for the 4 kW gap, depending on how the quote words it. Ask whether the minimum is measured on nameplate or on draw, and whether curtailed hours count toward it.

A prepay discount lowers the rate in exchange for paying ahead: rate × (1 − discount). If an indicative 4% discount applied to quote B's 11 cents, the rate would be about 10.6 cents per kWh drawn.

At Proton, prepaid discounts are indicative: 4% off for 12 months prepaid, 8% off for 24 months prepaid and 12% off for 36 months prepaid. The rate they apply to, whether and how that rate changes over the term, and what a prepayment covers are set out in your hosting agreement.

Before comparing prepaid bitcoin mining hosting offers, ask each host:

• What the prepayment buys: a block of kWh, a period of hosting, or a credit against metered bills?
• What happens to unused prepayment when the site is curtailed or a machine is down for repair?
• What happens on exit: notice and refund terms for the unused part.

Prepaying a nameplate quote discounts kWh you may never draw, so run the formula on the discounted rate and your expected draw. Whether prepaying suits you depends on your own cash position, which this guide cannot judge.

Curtailment is time the site powers down, often when grid prices spike or supply is constrained. What it does to your bill depends on the billing basis.

• Metered draw: the meter stops, so curtailed hours add no power charge. Fixed fees are spread over fewer kWh, so the effective cost per kWh drawn rises slightly.
• Nameplate or contracted kW: curtailed hours are billed like any other unless the contract credits them. Ask whether a credit is automatic or must be claimed.
• Flat fee per machine: the fee does not change, so every curtailed hour raises the cost per kWh drawn.

At Proton, expected curtailment hours per year depend on the site and are stated in your quote. You are not billed for power you do not draw, and curtailment events are logged and shown on your statement. A setup fee or other quoted fee is not power and is billed as your quote says.

Curtailment also cuts hashing time. The mining calculator shows every input so you can try your own assumptions; it excludes curtailment, so lower the running hours yourself.

A hosting rate per kWh is not a power price. An all-in rate bundles electricity with running the site around it: cooling, network, monitoring, security and people on site. Set it next to a power price as context, not as a like-for-like comparison.

For that context, the U.S. Energy Information Administration put the average U.S. price of electricity at 9.77 cents per kWh for industrial customers and 18.31 cents per kWh for residential customers in July 2026 (EIA Electric Power Monthly, Table 5.6.A). The residential figure is the closer reference if you are weighing hosting against running a machine on your own meter; home mining vs hosted mining covers the rest of that choice.

Pricing raw energy for your own site is a different job with different line items; what a cheap mining power quote leaves out covers it.

At Proton, hosting is quoted per kWh, per site, in writing, and metered at the PDU: billed on actual draw, not nameplate. What the rate covers, and any fee billed separately, is set out in your quote. Your statement includes per-machine kWh, uptime and hashrate for the period, so the kWh-drawn figure in the formula comes straight off it. Setup, the minimum and the deposit are stated in your quote; term, renewal and exit are set out in your hosting agreement. To get one, request a hosting quote.

A good fit if

• You are buying hydro machines from the Proton catalogue and want them hosted (hydro miner hosting covers what they need).
• You want power billed on metered draw at the PDU, with a per-machine statement you can check.
• You want every rate, fee and term set out in writing, per site, before anything ships.

Not a fit if

• Your machines were bought elsewhere: hosting is only for machines bought through Proton.
• Your machines are air-cooled: hosting is for hydro-capable models only.
• You want a published price list today: rates are quoted per site, and the regional rates on the hosting page are indicative estimates.
• You want cloud mining, a hashrate plan or promised returns: none of these is offered.