Can you mine bitcoin on your phone?

You cannot realistically mine bitcoin on your phone. A phone's processor can perform the same kind of hashing that mining uses, but it does so far too slowly to have any real chance against the specialized machines that run the network. The official app stores also block apps that try.

Are phone mining apps real?

Most are not what they seem. Apple's App Store Review Guidelines say apps may not mine cryptocurrency unless the processing happens off the device, such as cloud-based mining. Google Play's policy is similar: it does not allow apps that mine on devices, but permits apps that remotely manage mining.

So an app in either store that calls itself a bitcoin mining app is usually doing something else. It may be a dashboard for machines running elsewhere, a game that pays in its own token, or a cloud mining offer. Our guides on whether crypto mining apps work and what cloud mining is explain those models and their scam risks. The FTC warns that only scammers guarantee profits or big returns.

Even outside the stores, River notes that phone mining is highly inefficient and that continuous mining can degrade battery health and shorten a device's life.

Can you mine bitcoin on a Raspberry Pi?

Not with the Pi's own chip. When hobbyists built Raspberry Pi mining rigs back in 2013, Hackaday reported, the Pi did not have the power to mine at a worthwhile rate. It acted only as a controller, running mining software and passing work to USB ASIC sticks plugged into it.

The same idea lives on in small solo miners. Tom's Hardware described a USB stick in May 2025 running at about 72 kilohashes per second, citing odds of roughly 210.7 trillion to one of finding a block in a year. Owners treat devices like this as a lottery ticket rather than income. See what is an ASIC miner for why purpose-built chips dominate.

Can you mine bitcoin on a gaming PC?

Technically yes, practically no. The Bitcoin Wiki keeps an old table of graphics card speeds only for historical interest. It says GPU mining of bitcoin became impracticable once ASICs arrived, since most GPUs run below one gigahash per second.

A gaming PC is still far faster than a phone. Our guide to mining bitcoin on a laptop or gaming PC covers difficulty, pools and costs in detail.

What can a phone do in bitcoin instead?

A phone works well as a wallet, a way to watch the network or a remote control for mining hardware you own. Apple's rules allow wallet apps from developers enrolled as organizations. Mining itself happens on dedicated machines, whether at home or in large facilities.