Monero mining is one of the few things in cryptocurrency that still works on a standard computer. Not theoretically — actually. A modern CPU earns real XMR, and the economics are meaningful for anyone with low electricity costs.
This is by design. When the Monero developers created the RandomX proof-of-work algorithm in 2019, their explicit goal was to make ASIC mining impossible and CPU mining competitive. The reasoning was political as much as technical: ASIC dominance centralises mining into the hands of industrial operators, undermining the decentralisation that makes a cryptocurrency meaningful. RandomX uses memory-hard operations that CPUs handle well and custom silicon cannot easily optimise around.
What you need
Any modern CPU (Intel or AMD, 2015 or newer recommended). A Monero wallet to receive mining rewards. XMRig software — free and open source. A mining pool, with P2Pool recommended for privacy. And low electricity cost — this determines profitability more than anything else.
Step 1: Set up a Monero wallet
Feather Wallet is the recommended option for most users. Download from featherwallet.org, create a new wallet, and copy your primary address — it begins with "4". Keep your 25-word seed phrase in a secure offline location. This is the only way to recover your wallet if your device is lost.
Step 2: Download XMRig
XMRig is the standard Monero mining software — open source, actively maintained, available for all major operating systems. Download from xmrig.com and verify the signature against published checksums before running. On Windows, your antivirus will likely flag XMRig. This is a false positive caused by malware that has embedded XMRig without device owner consent. The software itself is legitimate. Add an exception in your antivirus for the XMRig folder.
Step 3: Choose a mining pool
P2Pool is the recommended choice — a decentralised mining pool with no operator, no account, and no signup. Your mining software connects to the P2Pool peer-to-peer network directly and rewards are distributed on-chain. No pool operator can withhold your earnings or require identification. Alternatively, centralised pools like MoneroOcean and SupportXMR accept connections with only your wallet address — no account required, and simpler to configure than P2Pool.
Step 4: Configure XMRig
Replace YOUR_MONERO_ADDRESS with your Feather Wallet address. The max-threads-hint at 75 — meaning 75% of your CPU threads — mines effectively while leaving headroom for other tasks on machines you also use day-to-day.
What to expect
Budget laptop CPU (4 cores): 1,000–2,000 H/s. Mid-range desktop CPU (8 cores, e.g. Ryzen 5 5600): 5,000–7,000 H/s. High-end desktop CPU (16 cores, e.g. Ryzen 9 5950X): 15,000–20,000 H/s. At current network difficulty and XMR price, a mid-range desktop mining continuously earns approximately $3–8 per month before electricity costs. Profitability depends almost entirely on your electricity rate. At $0.10/kWh — the US average — mining is marginal. At $0.05/kWh, it is clearly profitable. Use minerstat.com to calculate your specific setup.
Mining earns XMR with no exchange interaction — the highest-privacy acquisition method available. The tradeoff is time. If you want XMR quickly and already hold other cryptocurrency, a non-custodial swap is faster. Many Monero users do both.