Can you mine Solana coins?
No, you can't mine Solana. SOL is not created by mining rigs solving puzzles, as Bitcoin is. Solana uses proof of stake. New SOL goes to people who stake their coins and to the validators that run the network.
That leaves two ways to earn SOL rewards. You can stake SOL you already own, which takes a few clicks in a wallet. Or you can run a validator, the closest thing Solana has to a miner. That means renting a powerful server, running the software and attracting stake from others. This guide covers both, with most of it on what running a validator takes.
Solana mining vs staking: how new SOL is created
In proof of work, miners compete with hardware, and the fastest one earns the block reward. In proof of stake, the network picks who makes each block based on how much SOL is staked with them. Hardware has to be good enough to keep up, but extra power earns you nothing more.
On Solana, the network creates new SOL every epoch, a period of about a day. Most of it is paid to stakers in proportion to their stake. Each validator keeps a share, called its commission, for doing the work.
So the Solana version of "mining rewards" is staking rewards. The average staker earned about 4.9% a year in the latest epoch Solana Compass measured. Our staking statistics track that rate over time.
Solana mining apps and cloud mining: how they work
Apps that promise "Solana mining" on your phone are not mining SOL. Solana has nothing to mine. Some of these apps pay small rewards for watching ads or completing tasks. Others mine a different coin with your device and pay you in SOL. Some are scams.
Cloud mining sites that sell "Solana mining contracts" deserve the most caution. You pay up front for returns the site controls, and there is no mining behind them.
Never give an app or site your wallet's secret phrase. No real staking or validator service needs it. If you want SOL rewards with no hardware at all, staking is the honest route.
How to earn SOL rewards without mining: staking
Staking is how most people earn SOL rewards. You keep your SOL in your own wallet and delegate it to a validator. Your coins never leave your control, and you can unstake later.
It takes three steps. Open a wallet that supports staking, choose a validator, and confirm. Our guide to staking SOL in Phantom, Solflare, Backpack or Ledger walks through each wallet.
Stake 10 SOL and you would earn roughly half a SOL over a year at around 5%. Our Solana staking calculator works it out for any amount.
The validator you pick affects what you earn. Our guide on picking a Solana validator explains what to compare. If you want a token you can still use in DeFi, look at liquid staking on Solana instead.
What a Solana validator does
A Solana validator is a server that checks transactions, builds blocks when it is its turn, and votes on blocks other validators make. It is the job a miner does on Bitcoin. The difference is that its turns come from the SOL staked with it, not from raw computing power.
Validators take turns as the block producer. Each one gets turns in proportion to its stake. When it is the producer, it collects the fees in that block. The rest of the time, it votes to confirm blocks.
In October 2026 the Alpenglow upgrade changed how that voting works. Validators now send votes to each other directly instead of writing them on-chain, and blocks become final much faster. For operators, it also changed the cost of voting, which the cost section below covers.
Solana validator hardware requirements
A Solana validator needs a high-end server, far beyond a gaming PC. The table sums up the published requirements from Anza, which builds the Agave client.
| Part | Agave validator requirement |
|---|---|
| CPU | 12 cores / 24 threads or more, 2.8GHz base clock or faster, AMD Gen 3 or Intel Ice Lake or newer, with SHA extensions and AVX2 |
| RAM | 256GB or more, ECC suggested, on a board that can take 512GB |
| Disks | Separate NVMe SSDs: 1TB or more for accounts, 1TB or more for the ledger, 500GB or more for snapshots |
| Network | At least 2 Gbit/s symmetric for a staked node; 10 Gbit/s recommended |
| OS | Linux; Anza builds and runs on Ubuntu 24.04 |
The full list is in Anza's validator requirements. A fast clock matters more than lots of cores. Fast disks matter too, because a validator writes huge amounts of data all day.
Firedancer asks for similar hardware. Its getting started guide lists a 24-core CPU and 256GB of RAM as the minimum.
A GPU is not needed. Neither document lists one. Home internet is not enough either. Almost every serious validator runs on a rented bare-metal server in a data centre. Anza advises against Docker and warns that cloud virtual machines need much more skill to run well.
How much does it cost to run a Solana validator
Running a Solana validator costs SOL to vote plus dollars for the server. Since the Alpenglow upgrade, each validator that votes pays a flat fee called the Validator Admission Ticket. The Solana Foundation's Alpenglow guide puts it at 0.8 SOL per epoch. It is taken from the vote account.
That comes to roughly 270 SOL a year. The ticket is paid at the start of each epoch, in advance. If the vote account runs dry, the validator drops out of voting. So operators keep spare SOL in it.
Server costs vary by host and location. Fidelity's research team put total yearly running costs, including servers and operations, at about $60,000 and up in its October 2026 report.
There is no minimum stake to start. You only need a small deposit of about 0.02 SOL to open a vote account, plus the ticket. Our page on how much Solana validators make sets these costs against revenue in detail.
Solana validator clients: Agave, Jito, Firedancer and Harmonic
The client is the software a validator runs. Solana has several, and they can all run on the same network.
Agave is the main client. Anza looks after it. It is written in Rust and grew out of the first Solana code.
Jito-Solana is a version of Agave from Jito JTO$0.328-3.0%. It adds code that collects MEV tips. Traders pay these tips to get their trades placed in a set order. Most Solana stake runs a Jito client, because the tips add to rewards.
Harmonic is another Agave-based choice. It changes how blocks are built. Fidelity's October 2026 report put about a quarter of stake on Harmonic setups.
Firedancer is a separate client that Jump Crypto wrote from scratch in C. It makes the network safer. A bug in one codebase is less likely to hit validators on another.
Frankendancer, the half-and-half version of Firedancer, could not make the Alpenglow switch. Operators moved to Agave-based clients for the change. Galaxy's engineers wrote that Firedancer's 26.10 release supports Alpenglow, so operators can return to it.
If you are starting out, Agave or Jito-Solana is the usual first pick. They have the most guides and the biggest group of operators to ask for help.
Is Solana mining profitable? Validator profitability explained
Running a Solana validator is profitable only once enough SOL is staked with you. Revenue comes from your commission on staking rewards, the fees in blocks you produce, and a cut of MEV tips. All three grow with your stake. Costs stay roughly fixed.
On Solana Compass's late October 2026 reward data, a validator charging 5% needs about 40,000 SOL staked to pay for its voting ticket.
To cover $60,000 a year of server and running costs as well, it needs well over 100,000 SOL. That is a lot to win from strangers.
Most new validators therefore run at a loss for months. The number of Solana validators has fallen sharply as small operators gave up. Solana Compass counts about 697 validators with active stake.
If you hold a large amount of SOL yourself, the sums change. Your own stake earns full rewards, so a big holder can cover costs faster. For most people, staking with an existing validator earns more for less work.
How to start running a Solana validator
Starting a validator takes Linux skills, a budget for the first year and patience. The usual path has six steps.
- Learn on testnet first. It uses free test SOL, so mistakes cost nothing.
- Rent a bare-metal server that meets the hardware list, in a data centre that isn't already crowded with validators.
- Build and install Agave or Jito-Solana, following Anza's operator docs.
- Create your identity and vote keys, keep the key that controls withdrawals offline, and fund the vote account for the admission ticket.
- Set your commission and publish your validator's name, website and logo.
- Apply to the Solana Foundation Delegation Program and approach stake pools.
The Foundation's program matters most early on. It matches the stake you win from others with an equal amount, according to its published criteria. In return, you must keep commission at 5% or less and stay out of the most crowded data centres.
Solana Compass has run its own validator since September 2021, so we know the first year is the hardest. Most of the work is keeping the node online every hour and earning stakers' trust.
If you decide running one isn't for you, you can still back a validator that does. Our Solana Compass staking page explains how to stake with ours.
