Best Phones for Acurast Mining in 2026 (Earnings by Phone Tier)

Not all phones earn the same on Acurast. A budget phone and a flagship phone running the same app on the same network can earn five to ten times different amounts per month. Here is a breakdown of which phones earn what, why the difference is so large, and which tier makes sense for different situations.

Numbers below are from April-May 2026. Earnings change over time with ACU price and the number of phones on the network, so use these as reference points for comparison rather than exact current figures.

What Determines Your Phone's Earnings

Every phone on the Acurast network gets a benchmark score. This score determines your share of the ACU reward pool that pays out every epoch (roughly every 90 minutes). The score has three factors:

• RAM: 46% of the score
• CPU performance (single and multi-core): 46% of the score
• Storage: 8% of the score

RAM and CPU are almost everything. This is why a budget phone with 3 gigabytes of RAM earns a fraction of what a flagship with 12 gigabytes earns, even if the price difference was only a few dollars secondhand.

Budget Tier: $0.20 to $0.50 per Month

Example phones: Nokia C32, Redmi 9A, Moto G Pure

These earn 0.07 to 0.15 ACU per day. Monthly earnings around $0.20 to $0.50 per phone. Only worth running if you already own these phones. Do not buy them just for Acurast at this earnings level.

Mid-Range Tier: $1.10 to $1.40 per Month

Example phones: iPhone 11, Pixel 5, Motorola Edge 40

These earn 0.33 to 0.43 ACU per day. Monthly earnings around $1.10 to $1.40 per phone. Running your everyday phone at this tier makes sense since you own it anyway and the earnings add up with no extra cost.

Premium Tier: $2.00 to $2.50 per Month

Example phones: Samsung S21, Samsung S22, Pixel 8, OnePlus 8T

These earn 0.70 to 0.85 ACU per day. Monthly earnings around $2.00 to $2.45 per phone. At low secondhand prices, these become reasonable for dedicated farm use. A Samsung S22 can be found secondhand for well under $150, and the electricity cost is below $0.30 per month per phone.

Flagship Tier: $2.75 to $3.83 per Month

Example phones: Samsung S24 Plus, OnePlus 9 Pro, Asus ROG 5S, Realme GT

These earn 0.95 to 1.15 ACU per day. Monthly earnings around $2.75 to $3.83 per phone. Best performers on the network. If you are building a farm specifically for Acurast and want to optimize for earnings per phone, this is the tier to target secondhand.

Electricity Cost

Acurast runs at around 0.75 watts per phone on average. That is less power than a single LED light bulb. Running 10 phones uses less electricity than one laptop. At US electricity rates around $0.12 per kilowatt hour, a single phone costs roughly 7 cents per month in electricity. Even at higher European rates, it is well under $0.30 per phone per month. Electricity is not a meaningful factor for most setups.

Which Phones Can Run Acurast?

Almost any newer Android or iPhone can run the Acurast Lite Processor app. Not every model has been tested yet. There is a community-maintained phone compatibility list that covers hundreds of models if you want to check a specific one before buying.

Running a Dedicated Phone Farm

If you want to run multiple phones as a proper setup, Cellhasher makes hardware boxes designed specifically for Acurast phone farms. They are an official Acurast partner, build in the US, and offer versions with and without phones installed, including stripped-down motherboard setups that run without batteries for lower electricity use. Use code NORDIC for 5% off.

Getting Started

Setup is free and takes about two minutes. The Acurast setup tutorial covers the whole process. To earn MIST points on top of ACU rewards, also join the Cloud Rebellion with referral code mg3gif.

For a full earnings breakdown and profitability analysis including staked compute, see the Acurast earnings guide.