Guide
How to mine Monero (XMR) on a Mac
Updated 24 July 2026 · live profitability below refreshes on load
Since Pasiv 0.5.0 (25 September 2026), new installs mine Monero on unMineable's pool, which converts it to USDT and pays your own address once a day from 1.5 USDT (BNB Smart Chain or TRON). Connect a wallet, which only reads the address, or paste a USDT address from your exchange — no Monero wallet needed. The XMR-address steps below are the direct route, kept by installs from before 0.5.0 until their owner switches.
Monero is the coin CPU mining is for. Its RandomX algorithm was purpose-designed to resist ASICs and favour general-purpose CPUs — which today makes Apple Silicon one of the most power-efficient ways to mine it. XMR is also the most established, most liquid coin a Mac can meaningfully mine: a genuine currency with deep exchange support, not a speculative micro-cap.
The traditional route is XMRig on the command line: editing JSON configs, picking pool ports, tuning thread counts. Pasiv runs the same class of engine under a one-button app — paste your address, press start, and shares flow to the pool, which pays you directly.
See what your chip's hashrate is worth.
Three steps
- Download Pasiv from pasiv.network (free; signed and notarized for macOS on Apple Silicon) and open it.
- Paste your XMR payout address. Standard addresses start with 4 (subaddresses with 8); Pasiv validates the format before you can start. No wallet yet? Pick one below — it takes a couple of minutes, and Pasiv never asks for private keys or seed phrases.
- Press the pearl. Your Mac connects to the pool and starts submitting shares; the pool pays your address directly once you pass its payout minimum. Pasiv shows your live hashrate, and mining stops the moment you tell it to.
The facts
| Algorithm | RandomX — CPU-optimised proof of work; runs natively and efficiently on Apple Silicon |
| Hardware | Any Apple Silicon Mac (M1 or newer), Windows x64 PC or x86-64 Linux machine |
| Pool | unMineable (rx.unmineable.com), which converts to USDT; its fee is 0.75%. On the direct route: MoneroOcean (gulf.moneroocean.stream) — established public pool, its own fee ~1% |
| Payout | USDT to your own address (BNB Smart Chain or TRON), once a day from 1.5 USDT; on the direct route, XMR to your XMR address once the pool's minimum payout is reached. Pasiv is non-custodial and never touches your funds |
| Cost | Pasiv is free; a 4% time-sliced fee applies only while actively mining — on every coin on the USDT route, and on Monero only on the direct route. On the USDT route unMineable's own pool fee is 0.75% (how it works) |
Frequently asked questions
Is mining Monero legal?
In most jurisdictions, mining with your own hardware and paying for your own electricity is legal. A few countries restrict cryptocurrency generally — that's your responsibility to check locally. Pasiv only ever mines with your explicit consent, on hardware you control.
How long until I get paid?
The pool pays automatically once your accrued balance passes its minimum payout. On a single Mac that typically means days to weeks for the first payout, faster on bigger chips. You can watch your pending balance on the pool's website any time by looking up your address.
Getting a Monero address
A payout address is your wallet’s public ID — the pool pays it directly. You never give Pasiv a key or a seed phrase, and Pasiv never holds your coins. Any of these will give you an address in a couple of minutes. We have no affiliation with any of them and take no referral.
- Cake Wallet — phone app, iOS and Android. The quickest start if you have never used a crypto wallet. Open it, let it create a Monero wallet, write the seed words down on paper, copy the receive address.
- Feather — a light desktop wallet for macOS, Windows and Linux. Small download, opens in seconds, no blockchain to sync. A good middle ground if you would rather keep the wallet on the same machine that mines.
- Official Monero GUI — the canonical wallet from the Monero project. The most thorough and the heaviest: it can sync the whole chain, which takes hours and tens of gigabytes unless you point it at a remote node.
An exchange deposit address also works if you already have an account somewhere that supports Monero, and for a first payout that is a perfectly reasonable shortcut. The catch is that exchanges can rotate or close a deposit address, and some reject pool payouts — if that happens you lose the payout, not just the deposit. A wallet you control does not have that failure mode.
Whatever you pick: write the seed words on paper and keep them offline. They are the only way to recover the wallet, nobody can reset them for you, and anyone who has them has your coins. Pasiv never sees them.
Do I need a Monero wallet first?
Not since Pasiv 0.5.0: new installs are paid in USDT, so a USDT address from an exchange or any wallet is enough. On the direct route, yes — mining needs an address to pay, and the address is just your wallet’s public ID. Cake Wallet is the quickest start on a phone; Feather is a light desktop wallet; the official Monero GUI is the canonical one and the heaviest. Any of them gives you an address to paste. Pasiv asks only for that public address, never for your keys or seed phrase.
Can I mine Monero on an iPhone or iPad?
No. Phone-class hardware produces a negligible hashrate, so mining is for Macs and PCs: Pasiv runs on Apple Silicon Macs, Windows and Linux. The Pasiv Companion phone app monitors and controls your rigs, and never mines.
What's the easiest way to mine Monero on my PC without using the command line?
Use a desktop app that drives XMRig for you. Pasiv is one: install it on Windows, macOS (Apple Silicon) or Linux, connect a wallet or paste a USDT address, and press start. It runs the official XMRig under the hood, the pool pays your own address in USDT, and there is no account. Gupax is another GUI, built around P2Pool. Pasiv takes a disclosed 4% time-sliced fee, only while mining; see Pasiv as an XMRig GUI.
Non-custodial · no account · stop any time