How to Mine Monero in 2026: XMRig, P2Pool and Honest Profit Math

Monero is the rare coin where an ordinary computer still has a place in mining. Its algorithm, RandomX, runs random programs that suit general-purpose CPUs, which is why there is no wave of specialised machines pushing home miners out. You will not get rich, but you can earn XMR that never touched an exchange and help keep the network spread across many hands.

What you need

• A modern CPU with plenty of cache. RandomX needs 2 MB of L3 cache and 256 KB of L2 per mining thread, which is why AMD Ryzen chips with large caches do well.
• About 2.5 GB of free RAM for the RandomX dataset, and dual-channel memory: bandwidth caps the hashrate.
• A Monero wallet to receive payouts. Use a separate wallet for P2Pool, because pool payouts are public. Our wallet guide has options.
• Optionally, your own node. P2Pool needs one; a pruned node of a little over 100 GB is fine.

What a CPU actually does

The lower figures are typical; the higher ones are the best tuned results submitted to XMRig's benchmark list. RAM speed, huge pages and cooling explain most of the gap.

Step 1: get XMRig from the right place

Download XMRig only from its GitHub releases page and check the hash. The current version is 6.26.0, from March 2026. Your antivirus will probably complain, because criminals bundle XMRig into malware: in 2025 researchers found more than 1,500 hijacked database servers secretly running it. Allow the exception for the file you downloaded yourself, and never run a "miner" sent by someone else.

XMRig donates 1% of your hashing time to its developers by default (one minute in every hundred). You can change it with the donate-level setting.

Step 2: turn on huge pages

This is the biggest free improvement. XMRig's documentation says huge pages can raise RandomX performance by up to 50%.

• Linux: sudo sysctl -w vm.nr_hugepages=1280 (1,280 pages per NUMA node). Running XMRig as root lets it also apply the MSR tweak, which disables CPU prefetchers that do not help RandomX.
• Windows: run XMRig as Administrator once so it can grant itself the "lock pages in memory" right, then reboot.

Step 3: choose a pool

You have two kinds of choice.

P2Pool is a decentralised pool with no operator: 0% fee, no payout fee, and payouts sent straight from each block Monero miners find. It runs as its own program next to your Monero node, and XMRig connects to it on 127.0.0.1:3333. It has three side chains, and the right one depends on your hashrate:

Figures are based on share difficulty on 25 October 2026 and move with the network. P2Pool's own advice: if your expected time between shares is more than a day, move to a smaller chain. The P2Pool Observer calculator tells you your number.

A regular pool such as SupportXMR is easier: point XMRig at it with your address and you are mining, no node needed. The cost is a pool fee and trusting the operator. It also concentrates hashrate: in October 2026 SupportXMR alone had roughly 31% of the network's hashrate, which is exactly the kind of concentration P2Pool exists to avoid.

The easy way: Gupax

Gupax is a desktop app that downloads and runs P2Pool and XMRig together, with a simple interface. It can also run a node for you. It is now maintained by Cyrix126, and version 2.0 merged the Gupaxx fork back in. It is the quickest route to P2Pool for most people.

Keep P2Pool updated

In June 2026 P2Pool's developer issued a critical security update: a consensus bug could have let an attacker interfere with payouts. No exploitation was found, and versions 4.16 and later fix it. Gupax shipped an update for its bundled P2Pool with a blunt warning that miners who did not update could have their effort stolen. Mining software is not set-and-forget.

P2Pool's README also asks node operators to start monerod with --enforce-dns-checkpointing and --enable-dns-blocklist, as protection against selfish mining. That advice comes from the Qubic episode.

What happened with Qubic

Qubic is a project that mined Monero with a large amount of CPU power and used the proceeds to buy back its own token. Its share of Monero's hashrate grew from under 2% in May 2025 to over 25% by late July. On 11 and 12 August 2025 its founder claimed Qubic had reached 51% and reorganised six blocks. Others disputed that it ever held a true majority. On 14 September 2025 an 18-block reorganisation, the deepest in Monero's history, invalidated about 118 transactions.

Monero's developers responded with proposals for rolling DNS checkpoints, and Kraken briefly paused XMR deposits as a precaution. By April 2026 Qubic said it had moved its mining to Dogecoin, and pool trackers show no Qubic hashrate on Monero today. The practical takeaways for miners: more independent hashrate (P2Pool) makes the network harder to dominate, and merchants should wait for more than 10 confirmations on large payments.

The profit math

Your share of the daily reward is your hashrate divided by the network's, times 720 blocks a day, times about 0.6 XMR per block:

XMR per day  = (your H/s / network H/s) x 720 x 0.6
Power cost   = watts x 24 / 1000 x price per kWh
Daily profit = XMR per day x XMR price - power cost

With the network at about 6.6 GH/s and XMR at about $606 on 25 October 2026:

At $0.15 per kWh the 9950X keeps about 45 cents a day. In much of Europe, with power at $0.30 or more, a desktop roughly breaks even or loses money. Mining makes most sense if your electricity is cheap or already paid for (or heating a room you would heat anyway), or if you simply value XMR that never passed through an exchange.