GoMining W/TH tiers explained: why the cheap miner costs you more

When you compare miner offers on GoMining there are two numbers on screen: TH (hashrate) and W/TH (efficiency). The first one is easy — more TH, more bitcoin. The second looks like a technical footnote, and it is precisely the one that decides whether a year from now your miner is still profitable or has quietly become a monthly bill.

The short rule: TH decide what you earn, W/TH decide what you pay. And what you pay doesn't fall when bitcoin falls.

What W/TH means, in one line

Watts per terahash: how much electricity your miner burns for each unit of hashrate. A 100 TH miner at 12 W/TH draws 1,200 W. The same 100 TH at 28 W/TH draws 2,800 W — more than double, to mine exactly the same bitcoin.

On GoMining you pay for that electricity inside the maintenance fee, at between $0.05 and $0.07 per kWh depending on the data center (official documentation, verified July 2026). On top of that sits the service fee of $0.0089 per TH per day, which is the same for everyone.

What a TH costs depending on how you buy it

Here is the figure that causes the most confusion, so let's settle it before going further: the price per TH is set by the miner's efficiency, not by the buying route. These are the prices verified inside the app in July 2026:

Verified in the GoMining app in July 2026. GoMining sets the first three and they move very little. The secondary market price is set by whoever is selling and swings a lot: on the same day you can find offers at twice the price for identical efficiency. The 8.34 was one specific offer that was seen, not a reference price — which is exactly why any claim along the lines of "the secondary market always wins" is false.

Look at what this table is saying: a TH at 15 W/TH costs roughly half what a TH at 12 W/TH costs. That is not a promotion and it is not a mistake. It's the market pricing efficiency, and it's exactly the trap people fall into.

The same money buys more bad TH than good TH

Here's the honest comparison. With a fixed budget of $1,000, how much hashrate each route buys and what each one returns with current network data:

$1,000 spent on hashrate only, electricity at $0.05/kWh and no maintenance discounts, so the effect of efficiency shows with nothing masking it. Price per TH from the table above.

There is no fixed winner here, and anyone telling you otherwise is selling something. With bitcoin high, cheap inefficient TH return more in absolute terms: it's simply more hashrate earning. The problem shows up from the other side.

The number that actually matters: the BTC price where you go negative

Your maintenance bill has no idea what bitcoin is worth. Electricity and the service fee cost the same at $100,000 as at $30,000. Your revenue, on the other hand, falls in direct proportion to the price.

Which means every efficiency tier has a bitcoin price below which it starts losing money, and that price is higher the worse the W/TH. With current network conditions:

No maintenance discounts, electricity at $0.05/kWh. The maths is direct: revenue is proportional to the bitcoin price and cost is not, so the break-even point is cost divided by gross revenue at the current price. Apply discounts and every one of these thresholds drops.

This is the table worth checking before buying — not the $/TH one. Read it like this: if a tier's threshold sits above today's bitcoin price, that miner isn't a risky investment, it's already losing money every single day, and the person selling it on the secondary market knows that. Buying efficiency is buying margin of safety, and that margin isn't visible in the purchase price: it shows up the day the market turns.

Discounts help, but they don't fix bad W/TH

The fair objection: "sure, but I have my maintenance discounts maxed out." The discounts cut your bill by up to 29% across the three documented ones — token balance, VIP level and the service-button streak — and that lowers every threshold in the table above.

But discounts apply to your bill, not instead of it. A 29% discount on a bill that is twice as large is still a larger bill. Efficiency acts before any discount does, which is why it rules. For the detail on how each of the four discounts is earned, it's in the article on the GOMINING token and VIP tiers.

The 28 W/TH ceiling

There is a practical limit worth knowing before buying cheap on the secondary market: above 28 W/TH, GoMining no longer lets you upgrade the miner's hashrate. A very inefficient miner doesn't just perform worse — it also loses access to the upgrade route, which happens to be the one with the cheapest $/TH.

Put differently: buying a very inefficient miner because it's dirt cheap leaves you with an asset you can't grow and that is first in line to go negative. That's the combination to avoid.

In short

• TH decide what you earn; W/TH decide what you pay. And what you pay doesn't fall when bitcoin falls.
• Price per TH is set by efficiency, not by buying route. A TH at 15 W/TH costs roughly half a TH at 12 W/TH, and there's a reason for that.
• The same money buys more bad TH than good TH, and with bitcoin high they can return more in absolute terms. The risk isn't in today's return.
• Every efficiency tier has its own bitcoin price of ruin, higher the worse the W/TH. Buying efficiency is buying margin.
• Discounts don't rescue bad W/TH: they apply to the bill, not instead of it.
• Above 28 W/TH you can't upgrade, so the cheap miner doesn't grow either.
• Secondary market pricing is set by the seller and swings a lot. Never treat it as a constant.

Put your own numbers into the calculator and look at the break-even for your real setup, or read the methodology to see where each formula comes from. And if you're weighing this against mining at home, that comparison is here.