GPU provider economics · AUD scenario

Understand the cost.
Then consider the return.

Explore the total cost of contributing a GPU: hardware, electricity, availability, accepted work and other operating costs. Enter your own costs and compare the scenarios.

Illustrative weekly example · AUD

What could a week look like?

A compatible mid-range GPU placed in the proposed Performance tier, doing 20 accepted hours in a week at A$0.80 an hour, would gross A$16.00 before costs.

Assume 40 powered-on hours: 20 accepted hours, 1 unpaid retry hour and 19 idle hours. At 250 W for the whole machine while processing, 50 W while idle, and A$0.30/kWh, electricity would cost A$1.86 (6.2 kWh).

That leaves A$14.14 before hardware cost, cooling, bandwidth, fees, maintenance and tax. These are example inputs, not measured hardware specifications or a forecast. A GPU with no accepted jobs has no gross compensation.

Change every assumption in the full cost calculator →

Your hardware.
Your assumptions.

Proposed GPU workload tier

System purchase cost or current value (AUD)Expected resale value at end of life (AUD)Useful life remaining (months)Hardware cost allocated to GPU providing (%)Powered-on availability (hours/month)Accepted paid utilisation of powered-on hours (%)Unpaid processing / retry hours per monthWhole-machine processing power (watts)Whole-machine idle power (watts)Electricity tariff (AUD/kWh)Additional cooling cost (AUD/month)Additional bandwidth/storage cost (AUD/month)Maintenance/wear allowance (AUD/month)Financing interest only (AUD/month)Additional payout fees (% of provider gross)

Accepted work plus unpaid processing cannot exceed powered-on availability. Remaining powered-on time uses the idle-power assumption. Enter financing interest, not principal repayments, because hardware recovery is already modelled. Additional cooling should exclude power already counted at the wall.

Monthly scenario

Cost and return.

Accepted productive time—

Provider gross compensation—

Modelled whole-machine energy—

Electricity cost—

Additional payout fees—

Cooling, bandwidth, maintenance and interest—

Total operating costs—

Allocated hardware depreciation—

Total monthly cost including hardware allocation—

Remainder after operating costs—

Remainder after operating and allocated hardware costs—

Total cost per accepted hour—

Operating-cash payback, excluding resale—

Cash ROI over useful life, including assumed resale—

Economic break-even utilisation—

Customer cost for the same accepted hours—

How to interpret it

Gross income is only the beginning.

Only accepted productive hours receive the proposed provider rate. Unpaid processing and idle time still consume electricity.

Hardware depreciation spreads the allocated purchase/current value minus expected resale over its entered useful life. It is an economic allowance, not tax depreciation advice.

Operating-cash payback divides allocated upfront cost by the monthly remainder after operating costs. It excludes resale. ROI over useful life includes that assumed resale and repeats the same monthly cash scenario for the entered period.

Electricity = (processing hours × processing watts + idle hours × idle watts) ÷ 1,000 × tariff. Provider rates already exclude the platform’s planned retained share; it is not deducted again here.

Tax, GST treatment, changes in rates or demand, equipment failures, and costs you leave at zero are not modelled. Actual hardware may have different processing and idle power. No purchase recommendation is made.

Compare tiers using the same inputs.

Power and all other assumptions stay identical across these rows for comparison. Change the inputs for each actual machine; higher-tier hardware may cost more and draw more power.

Tier	Customer processing subtotal	Provider gross	Provider total cost	Provider remainder

Understand the cost.Then consider the return.