What does the --donate-level option do in XMRig?
The --donate-level option sets the percentage of XMRig’s mining time that supports XMRig’s developers instead of your own mining work. For example, --donate-level=1 means roughly 1% of your mining time goes to developer donations—not that XMRig takes 1% of the Monero already in your wallet.
How the donation works
XMRig is mining software that uses your computer’s processing power to help secure a cryptocurrency network. When you mine Monero with it, the donation feature periodically directs that work to the developers’ donation mining destination.
During those periods, your computer is still mining, but the work benefits the developers rather than your configured destination.
The important distinction is mining time versus wallet funds:
- XMRig does not withdraw coins from your wallet.
- It does not take a percentage from your existing balance.
- It temporarily assigns a share of your mining work to developer support.
That leaves slightly less mining time for you. However, your actual payout will not necessarily fall by exactly the donation percentage over a short period. Mining results also vary with connection quality, accepted work, and how your mining pool—a service that combines miners’ work—calculates rewards.
How to set the percentage
You can set the donation level when starting XMRig from a command line, the text interface where you run programs.
For a 1% donation level:
xmrig --donate-level=1
For a 5% donation level:
xmrig --donate-level=5
Add the option to your usual startup command alongside your other settings. These examples show only the donation option; you still need your normal mining configuration.
If you use XMRig’s JSON configuration file, which stores settings as named values, the matching setting is:
"donate-level": 1
That line belongs inside your existing configuration file, rather than being a complete configuration on its own. A command-line value can override the value in the file, so check your launch command if the setting appears not to stick.
The default and minimum matter
Standard official XMRig builds use a 1% default donation level and a 1% minimum. You can increase it if you want to contribute more.
A common misunderstanding is that setting --donate-level=0 disables donations. In standard official builds, it does not: zero is below the supported minimum and is not a supported way to turn donations off.
XMRig’s source code is publicly available, and custom builds can change donation behavior. That does not make a random “zero-fee XMRig” download trustworthy. Modified mining programs can secretly replace your payout address, add hidden fees, or contain malware. Prefer official releases, and check the documentation for your particular version or build if its behavior differs.
The bottom line
Use --donate-level to choose how much of XMRig’s mining time supports its developers. For a standard official build, --donate-level=1 is the usual minimum and default. It is separate from any mining-pool fee, and it never means giving XMRig permission to spend coins from your wallet.
