How to Mine Litecoin: Complete Setup Guide
- To mine Litecoin, you need a Scrypt ASIC miner. The Bitmain Antminer L9 is the current standard. GPUs and CPUs are not profitable.
- Set up a personal Litecoin wallet first, then create a pool account on LitecoinPool.org, F2Pool, or Kryptex.
- Log into your miner’s web interface, enter the pool’s stratum address, your wallet address, and reboot. It takes about 15 minutes to go live.
- Enable merge mining so your hardware earns Dogecoin at the same time as Litecoin, with no extra electricity cost. This is where most of your daily profit comes from.
- The Antminer L9 (17 GH/s) generates around $4.63/day in LTC at $0.07/kWh. Add DOGE rewards and net profit climbs to roughly $9/day. Break-even on hardware takes 18–26 months.
- Electricity cost is the deciding factor. Above $0.10/kWh, the margin disappears fast.
You might be interested in mining Litecoin, but never start, because the information online either assumes too much or throws too much technical jargon at you. The actual process is less complicated than it looks.
You need a dedicated ASIC miner, a personal wallet to receive payouts, and an account on a mining pool. Once those three things are in place, you configure a handful of settings in your miner’s browser interface, and it runs on its own. The hard part is not the setup. It is knowing whether the electricity cost in your area makes the whole thing worth doing before you spend anything on hardware.
This guide covers the setup and the numbers, so you can make that call with real information.
Table of contents
How Litecoin Mining Works
Miners confirm transactions on the Litecoin network by solving a cryptographic puzzle. The first miner to solve it earns the block reward, currently 6.25 LTC per block. The last halving happened in August 2023, and the next one is expected around 2027.
Litecoin uses the Scrypt algorithm. Bitcoin uses SHA-256. They are completely separate: a Bitcoin ASIC cannot mine Litecoin, and a Litecoin ASIC cannot mine Bitcoin. Scrypt was designed to be memory-intensive to resist ASIC mining, but Scrypt-specific ASICs arrived years ago and now dominate the network entirely.
Litecoin confirms a new block every 2.5 minutes, four times faster than Bitcoin’s 10-minute cycle. More frequent blocks mean more frequent payouts, but each reward is smaller in absolute terms.
What You Need Before You Start Mining Litecoin
A Scrypt ASIC, a personal wallet, and a pool account. You need to get them in that order.
1. A Scrypt ASIC Miner
GPU mining Litecoin is not profitable in 2026. The network hashrate is dominated by ASICs, and a GPU cannot compete on efficiency. You need a dedicated Scrypt ASIC to earn anything worth the electricity.
2. A Litecoin Wallet
You need a receiving address – a Litecoin Wallet before you configure the miner.
Litewallet and Electrum-LTC are solid software options. For larger balances, a hardware wallet is worth the extra step.
Write down your seed phrase and store it offline. That address is where your pool payouts land.
If you want to buy or exchange LTC without setting up a mining operation, you can do it directly on Paybis.
3. A Mining Pool Account
Solo mining Litecoin in 2026 is not practical. A single ASIC would wait months between block discoveries. Pool mining groups your hashrate with other miners. When the pool finds a block, you receive a share of the reward proportional to your contribution. Payouts become regular instead of random.
How to Choose Your Miner for Litecoin
The Bitmain Antminer L9 is the current generation for Scrypt mining, released in 2024. It comes in three output levels due to chip binning during production. All three use the same design and firmware.
| Model | Hashrate | Power Draw | Efficiency | Est. Daily Profit* |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Antminer L9 (15 GH/s) | 15 GH/s | 3,150W | 0.21 J/MH | ~$1.50–$9 |
| Antminer L9 (16 GH/s) | 16 GH/s | 3,360W | 0.21 J/MH | ~$2–$11 |
| Antminer L9 (17 GH/s) | 17 GH/s | 3,570W | 0.21 J/MH | ~$2.26–$4.63 |
Estimates at $0.07–$0.10/kWh, including merged DOGE rewards. Figures change with LTC and DOGE prices.
The older Antminer L7 (9.16 GH/s) still appears on the second-hand market. It draws the same power as the L9 but produces roughly half the hashrate. At $0.10/kWh, the L7 runs at a net loss on LTC alone. If you can find one at a steep discount and your electricity is cheap, it can still work. Otherwise, the L9 is the better starting point.
Before you power on, confirm you have a dedicated 220–240V circuit with at least a C32 breaker. The L9 draws up to 3,570W continuously. It also runs at 72–76 dB, so a basement, outbuilding, or ventilated container works well. But keep in mind that a living room is not an option.
The Merge Mining Advantage
It lets your ASIC mine Litecoin and Dogecoin at the same time, because both use the Scrypt algorithm. No extra hardware, no extra electricity. Both rewards land in your pool account automatically.
Merge mining matters more than most guides acknowledge. In February 2026, the Antminer L9 (17 GH/s) earns around $4.63/day in LTC at $0.07/kWh. The same machine earns roughly $10.63/day in DOGE through merge mining. On most days, the DOGE side is carrying more of the daily revenue than LTC itself.
Every major pool supports merge mining. When you configure your pool account, make sure DOGE merge mining is enabled and that you have a Dogecoin wallet address set for payouts.
Choosing a Mining Pool
So which pool is worth using? The main options each take a different approach.
- LitecoinPool.org has been running since 2011 and uses a pure PPS model. You get paid for every valid share you submit, regardless of whether the pool finds a block. The 2% fee eliminates variance risk. Merge mining with DOGE runs automatically.
- F2Pool is one of the largest pools globally by hashrate. It uses PPS+ and charges around 2.5% on LTC. Detailed dashboards and reliable uptime make it a solid option for miners who want clear visibility into their operation.
- Kryptex Pool credits LTC payouts hourly. DOGE merge mining rewards are converted to LTC and added as a daily bonus. Good if you want everything settled in one currency.
- Prohashing automatically mines whichever Scrypt coin is most profitable at any moment and pays in your chosen currency. The fee is 4.99% flat. Worth considering if you care about maximum daily revenue rather than accumulating LTC specifically.
One thing worth keeping in mind: mining at the largest available pool contributes to hashrate centralization, which is a genuine concern for network security. LitecoinPool.org has historically capped its growth for exactly this reason.
Step-by-Step Setup
You need to go through some steps to configure an Antminer L9.
- Step 1: Sign up at your pool. Create an account and note your stratum address. It looks like
stratum+tcp://litecoin.kryptex.com:3333. You’ll also set a worker’s name in the formatusername.workername. - Step 2: Plug in the miner. Connect via Ethernet and power on. Give it 2–3 minutes to boot.
- Step 3: Find the miner’s IP address. Check your router’s connected devices list, or use the Bitmain device finder app. Once you have the IP, open it in a browser.
- Step 4: Log in to the web interface. The default login is usually
root / root. Change this immediately. - Step 5: Open Miner Configuration. You’ll see three pool slots. Fill in the primary pool URL and port in Pool 1. Add a backup URL in Pool 2. Set your worker’s name and use
xas the password (most pools accept any value here). - Step 6: Save and reboot. The miner restarts and connects to the pool. Full connection takes 10–20 minutes.
- Step 7: Check your pool dashboard. Log in and confirm the worker is active and submitting shares. Set your payout address to your Litecoin wallet. Set a separate Dogecoin address if merge mining is enabled.
You can also read our Monero mining and Dogecoin mining guides to get more details about other coins.
Is Litecoin Mining Profitable in 2026?
At 17 GH/s and $0.10/kWh, it takes about 49 days to mine 1 LTC at current network difficulty. That number alone doesn’t tell you much. What matters is total daily revenue against daily electricity cost.
The L9 (17 GH/s) earns roughly $4.63/day in LTC at $0.07/kWh. Add DOGE merge mining at around $10.63/day, subtract $6/day in electricity, and the net profit comes to approximately $9/day. That’s around $270/month. At a hardware cost of $5,000–$7,000, break-even lands between 18 and 26 months, and that assumes both LTC and DOGE prices stay where they are, which they won’t.
The honest version: this works for miners with cheap electricity and a long time horizon. It does not work as a short-term play. If your rate is above $0.10/kWh, run the numbers before ordering anything.
The CoinWarz LTC mining calculator lets you plug in your exact electricity cost and see real-time projections.
If mining doesn’t fit your situation but you still want LTC exposure, buying Litecoin directly on Paybis skips the hardware entirely. For context on how proof-of-work economics work across coins, read the Bitcoin mining guide to learn the fundamentals that apply here as well.
Common Mistakes Made When Mining Litecoin
Let’s look at what goes wrong for most new miners in detail.
Buying an L7 at market price
The L7 runs at a loss in LTC terms at $0.10/kWh. DOGE merge mining helps, but the margin is thin. If you can find one at a steep discount and your electricity is genuinely cheap, it can still turn a profit. At full price, it doesn’t make sense when the L9 exists.
Not calculating electricity first
Many people order hardware and only check their electricity rate afterward. A $0.12/kWh rate turns a break-even operation into a guaranteed loss. You need to run the numbers before you buy, not after.
Mining to an exchange wallet
Exchange wallets are custodial; you don’t control the private keys. If the exchange has an outage, freezes withdrawals, or gets hacked, your mining payouts are at risk. Mine to a personal wallet and move funds to an exchange only when you’re ready to sell.
Solo mining
A single L9 on the Litecoin network would statistically wait months between block discoveries. Pool mining converts that unpredictability into consistent daily payouts. There is no practical reason to solo mine Litecoin as an individual in 2026.
Bottom Line
Litecoin mining in 2026 comes down to one variable more than any other: your electricity rate. Below $0.07/kWh with an Antminer L9 and merge mining enabled, the numbers work. Above $0.10/kWh, the margin gets thin fast.
If the hardware path doesn’t fit, buying LTC directly gets you exposure to the asset without the setup, noise, or ongoing electricity cost.
FAQ
How much Litecoin can you mine a day?
This heavily depends on the kind of hardware you have. For example, an Antminer S9, one of the best mining methods with a hash rate of 180 MH/s can mine around 0.0055 LTC per day. You can check the latest LTC to USD prices right here on Paybis.
How profitable is mining Litecoin?
Once again, how Litecoin’s profitability becomes solely depends on your hardware, software, electricity, and the amount of time you spend actively mining.
How does Litecoin make money?
Just like Bitcoin, Litecoin is an open-source blockchain network that uses the PoW consensus mechanism to validate transactions. Litecoin miners who contribute to the network are rewarded with LTC. The more miners work on the blockchains, the more Litecoin’s value rises.
Can I mine Litecoin with a GPU in 2026?
No. Scrypt ASICs produce far more hashrate per watt than any GPU. GPU mining was viable before dedicated Scrypt ASICs arrived. It hasn’t been worth attempting for years.
What is the current Litecoin block reward?
6.25 LTC per block, following the August 2023 halving. The next halving is expected around 2027 and will bring it to 3.125 LTC.
How much Litecoin is left to mine?
Litecoin has a maximum supply of 84 million LTC. As of early 2026, about 76.2 million are in circulation, leaving roughly 7.8 million still to be mined.
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