How much will I make mining Monero with a Raspberry Pi?

You should expect very little income from mining Monero with a Raspberry Pi, and you may spend more on electricity than you earn. It can be a useful learning project, especially if you already own the Pi, but buying one just to earn XMR is unlikely to make financial sense.

Why a Raspberry Pi earns so little

Monero uses RandomX, a mining algorithm—the set of calculations your device runs to help secure the network. It favors CPUs, the main processors in computers, but that does not mean every CPU mines efficiently.

A Raspberry Pi has a small, low-power processor. Compared with a capable desktop CPU, it has limited processing power and fast internal memory, called cache. RandomX benefits from about 2 MB of L3 cache per mining thread, which is one stream of calculations.

Memory matters too. RandomX’s fast mode needs a dataset of about 2,080 MB, plus additional working memory. A Pi with only 2 GB of RAM cannot comfortably accommodate that. Light mode uses a 256 MB cache instead, but runs much more slowly.

A newer Pi with more RAM is more practical for experimenting, but extra RAM alone does not make it profitable.

How to estimate your own earnings

Your earnings depend on your measured hashrate: the number of mining calculations your Pi completes each second. There is no single reliable earnings figure for every Raspberry Pi.

Your result changes with:

• Your Pi model and operating system.
• Whether you mine through a browser or native software installed on the Pi.
• Cooling and whether the processor slows down when hot.
• Mining service fees and time spent offline.

Run your chosen setup long enough to reach a steady temperature. Then use its sustained hashrate in a live Monero mining calculator, along with your electricity price.

For context, Monero’s ongoing base reward creates roughly 432 XMR per day across the entire network. Your expected share depends on your share of the network’s total mining power—not simply how many hours your Pi runs. Network competition and XMR’s price change, so a calculator’s estimate is not a promise.

Electricity can wipe out the return

Low power use helps, but it does not guarantee a profit.

For example, if your complete setup draws 5 watts at the wall:

• Running it for 24 hours uses 0.12 kilowatt-hours, the units on your electricity bill.
• At $0.20 per kilowatt-hour, that costs $0.024 per day.
• Over 30 days, that is about $0.72.

Those are example electricity costs, not predicted mining earnings. Measure your own setup, including its fan and power supply. If the Pi would already be running anyway, compare its idle power use with its mining power use.

Browser rewards may take a long time to withdraw

Browser mining can perform differently from installed mining software. Do not use a desktop mining benchmark to predict your browser’s earnings.

Also check what the service actually computes, how it calculates rewards, its fees, and its minimum withdrawal amount. With a Pi’s small contribution, reaching that minimum could take a very long time.

A displayed balance is not the same as spendable XMR. Avoid services promising guaranteed profits or demanding an unexpected payment to release your earnings.

The bottom line

Use your Raspberry Pi to learn, not as a dependable income source. Measure its actual mining speed and electricity use before spending money, and check whether its small rewards can realistically be withdrawn.