What is an accepted share?

An accepted share is a piece of mining work that a mining pool has checked and counted as valid. It shows that your device contributed work, but it does not mean you found a Monero block or earned a payment you can withdraw right away.

What your share proves

When you mine with a pool, you work alongside other miners instead of trying to earn a whole block reward alone. The pool sends your mining software a job, and your device repeatedly calculates hashes—digital results produced from that job’s data.

Most results do not qualify for anything. Occasionally, your device produces one that meets the pool’s share difficulty, which is the level of work required for a result to count as a share.

Your software sends that result to the pool. If the pool checks it and finds it valid, it records an accepted share.

Think of it as a checked work receipt. It lets the pool measure your contribution without waiting for you to find a full block.

Why an accepted share is not a block

A pool’s share requirement is usually much easier to meet than Monero’s network requirement for finding a block. That gives the pool frequent proof that your miner is working.

There are two important outcomes:

• An ordinary accepted share meets the pool’s requirement. It counts toward measuring your work, but it does not create new XMR.
• A share that also meets the network requirement can be submitted as a block candidate. If the network accepts that block, it earns a block reward.

Monero uses RandomX, its mining algorithm—the rules your device follows to perform mining work. Browser-based mining does not change the difference between a share and a block.

How accepted shares affect your earnings

Accepted shares help determine your portion of the pool’s rewards. The exact calculation depends on the pool’s payout rules.

For example, a pay-per-last-N-shares pool divides rewards using a recent window of qualifying shares. A pay-per-share pool assigns a value to each valid share under its stated terms.

Do not assume every accepted share is worth the same amount. Pools can assign different share difficulties. A harder share represents more expected work than an easier one, so the raw share count alone is not a reliable earnings measure.

Your payment also depends on factors such as:

• The pool’s payout method and fees.
• Whether your shares fall within its reward window.
• Its minimum withdrawal amount.
• Any separate rules or fees imposed by a browser-mining service.

Check the pool’s dashboard and terms rather than converting a share count directly into XMR.

What to check when you see “accepted”

An accepted message is a good sign: your software successfully submitted work that the receiving service says is valid.

Still, compare your miner’s display with your pool account. Confirm that work appears under your correct mining address or account. Occasional reporting delays are normal.

An “accepted” counter on an unfamiliar website is not proof that the operator will pay you. Be wary of services asking you to send money to “unlock” mining earnings.

The bottom line

An accepted share means your mining work passed the pool’s checks and was counted. It is evidence of contribution—not a full block, a fixed amount of XMR, or a guaranteed withdrawal.