How many rejected shares is normal?

A few rejected shares are normal, but you generally want them to stay below 1% of all shares your miner submits. A steady rate above 1–2% is worth checking, while 5% or more usually points to a problem—not just bad luck.

What that percentage means

A share is a small piece of mining work your browser sends to a pool to show that it is contributing. A mining pool combines work from many miners and divides rewards according to its payment rules.

An accepted share counts toward your contribution. A rejected share usually does not, so repeated rejections can reduce what you earn.

Calculate your rejection rate like this:

Rejected shares ÷ total submitted shares × 100

For example, if your miner submits 1,000 shares and the pool rejects 5, your rejection rate is 0.5%.

Use accepted plus rejected shares as your total. Also check whether your dashboard lists stale shares separately. These are shares that arrive after the pool has moved on to newer work. Pools can report or credit them differently.

What counts as normal?

For a stable connection and a correctly working miner, these are useful guidelines—not guaranteed limits:

• 0%: Excellent, and entirely possible over a given period.
• Below 1%: Usually a healthy result.
• 1–2%: Not necessarily serious, but check whether it continues.
• Above 2%: Worth investigating if it persists.
• 5% or more: A strong reason to troubleshoot before leaving the miner running.

There is no single rejection rate that every Monero pool considers normal. Your distance from the pool, connection quality, mining software, and the pool’s rules all matter.

A brief spike after reconnecting is less concerning than a high rate that stays there for hours.

Judge enough shares, not just a few minutes

Small samples can make your rejection rate look worse than it really is.

If one of your first ten shares gets rejected, your dashboard shows 10%. That does not establish that your setup has a lasting problem. If you then submit 990 accepted shares, the overall rate drops to 0.1%.

For a useful check:

• Look at several hundred submitted shares, ideally more.
• Compare accepted and rejected counts from the same time window.
• Check the pool’s figures as well as your miner’s display.
• Watch whether rejections appear steadily or only during disconnects.

Browser mining may submit shares slowly, depending on your device and the amount of work required per share. You may need a longer observation period to get a meaningful percentage.

The rejection reason matters as much as the rate

Stale shares often point to network delays, temporary disconnections, or pauses in your browser. Try a closer pool server if one is available, use a reliable connection, and check whether your device is sleeping.

Invalid shares mean the submitted work fails the pool’s checks. Repeated invalid shares deserve attention even when the percentage is low. They can indicate faulty mining software, incompatible settings, or an unstable device.

Duplicate shares mean the same work was submitted more than once. Frequent duplicates can suggest a miner or connection-handling problem.

Check the rejection message before changing settings. A faster internet plan will not fix incorrect calculations.

The bottom line

Aim for less than 1% rejected shares over a meaningful sample. Investigate a sustained rate above 1–2%, and treat repeated invalid shares as a warning even below that range. A handful of isolated rejections is usually nothing to worry about.