The Antminer S23 Hyd 3U puts 1,160 TH/s in a single rack chassis. That is more than four S21 XPs in one box, at 9.5 joules per terahash, the best efficiency Bitmain was shipping in volume until the S23 XP Hyd arrives in November.
It is also not a miner in the sense most buyers mean. You do not plug it into a wall. It is an 11 kW, three-phase, liquid-cooled rack component that needs a coolant distribution unit, a dry cooler and a plumber before it hashes a single block. The miner costs about $28,000. The loop around it can cost as much again.
This page covers the whole S23 family: what each model is, what the market is actually charging in September 2026, what they earn at today's hashprice, and who can realistically run one. Figures checked 26 September 2026.
The S23 family at a glance
Bitmain now sells six S23 variants. They share a chip generation but are aimed at completely different buyers:
| Model | Hashrate | Power | Efficiency | Cooling | Market price (Sep 2026) | $/TH |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Antminer S23 | 318 TH/s | 3,498 W | 11.0 J/TH | Air | from ~$4,900 | ~$15 |
| Antminer S23 Hyd | 580 TH/s | 5,510 W | 9.5 J/TH | Hydro | ~$13,500 | ~$23 |
| Antminer S23 Hyd 3U | 1,160 TH/s | 11,020 W | 9.5 J/TH | Hydro, 3U rack | $28,400–$30,000 | $24.5–25.9 |
| Antminer S23e Hyd 2U | 865 TH/s | 8,650 W | 10.0 J/TH | Hydro, 2U rack | listings vary widely | — |
| Antminer S23 Immersion | 442 TH/s | 5,304 W | 12.0 J/TH | Immersion | ~$9,000 | ~$20 |
| Antminer S23 XP Hyd | 600 TH/s | 5,340 W | 8.9 J/TH | Hydro | ~$14,500–$15,300 (ships Nov 2026) | $24–25.5 |
Prices are the range of live reseller and aggregator listings on 25–26 September 2026, excluding VAT. The 3U's range comes from OneMiners ($28,399), ASIC Miner Value's best listing ($29,224), BT-Miners (~$29,800) and Jingle Mining ($30,000). In euros, one EU distributor lists it at €27,999 before VAT, or €33,879 with 21% VAT. Bitmain launched the S23 XP Hyd at $25.5 per terahash, about $15,300.
Ignore anything far below that range. A search-result snippet showed the 3U at $14,879 while the live page said $28,399, and a miner selling for half the market is the single most common sign of a fake shop.
What the S23 Hyd 3U actually is
"3U" is a rack height: three rack units, 132 mm. The chassis is 900 × 486 × 132 mm, sized to slide into a standard 19-inch server rack rather than sit on a shelf. Everything about it assumes a data centre:
- Power: 380–415 V three-phase at 11,020 W. No household or ordinary commercial single-phase supply will run it. One distributor's FAQ lists 220–240 V, which contradicts every spec sheet we found, so confirm with Bitmain's own sheet for your batch before wiring anything.
- Coolant: the S23 Hyd spec sheet asks for inlet coolant at 20–50 °C, 8–10 litres per minute, at no more than 3.5 bar, through OD10 connectors. Use antifreeze, pure water or deionised water. We found no separate published flow figure for the 3U; resellers reuse the Hyd numbers.
- Noise: about 50 dB. With no fans, the noise comes from your dry cooler outside, not from the machine.
- Weight: listed at 13.5 kg by one seller and 18.2 kg by another. The lower figure matches the standard S23 Hyd exactly, so the higher one is more plausible for a unit twice the hashrate.
The spec disagreements are normal for a new Bitmain machine: resellers copy each other's pages. Treat reseller sheets as a first look, not a wiring diagram.
What it earns at today's hashprice
Hashprice, the dollar revenue per unit of hashrate per day, was $40.93 per PH/s per day on 21 September 2026 (Hashrate Index), or $0.0409 per TH/s. Bitcoin was about $84,000, difficulty was 132.76 T after a 4.16% rise on 19 September, and network hashrate was around 946 EH/s. If the term is new, our hashprice explainer covers why it is the only number that matters here.
Gross revenue and daily profit before pool fees, at three electricity prices:
| Model | Revenue/day | Net at $0.05 | Net at $0.07 | Net at $0.10 | Break-even $/kWh |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| S23 (air) | $13.01 | $8.81 | $7.13 | $4.61 | $0.155 |
| S23 Hyd | $23.72 | $17.11 | $14.47 | $10.50 | $0.179 |
| S23 Hyd 3U | $47.44 | $34.22 | $28.93 | $21.00 | $0.179 |
| S23e Hyd 2U | $35.38 | $25.00 | $20.85 | $14.62 | $0.170 |
| S23 Immersion | $18.08 | $11.71 | $9.17 | $5.35 | $0.142 |
| S23 XP Hyd | $24.54 | $18.13 | $15.57 | $11.72 | $0.191 |
| For comparison: S21 XP | $11.04 | $6.67 | $4.92 | $2.29 | $0.126 |
Break-even is revenue divided by daily kWh. It tells you the highest electricity price at which the machine still covers its own power. It does not account for the purchase price.
The headline: at $0.07 per kWh, the 3U clears about $29 a day. On a flat hashprice, the machine alone pays back in roughly 30 months at a $0.06 hosted rate. That "flat" assumption is where the maths gets uncomfortable.
The halving is 19 months away
The next Bitcoin halving is expected around April 2028. It halves the block subsidy, and with it most of every miner's revenue, overnight. Unless price or difficulty move to compensate, the 3U's gross falls from $47.44 to about $23.72 a day.
At $0.06 per kWh the 3U makes about $31.57 a day until the halving. After it, the power bill of $15.87 a day stays the same, so profit falls to about $7.85 a day. Over the 19 months before April 2028 the machine earns back roughly $18,200 of its $28,400 price. At the post-halving rate, the remaining $10,200 takes about three and a half more years.
That does not make the S23 a bad buy. Historically the halving has been absorbed partly by price and partly by old machines switching off, and a 9.5 J/TH fleet is exactly what survives when the S19s go dark. But any payback figure that assumes today's hashprice for three years is wrong. Our 2028 halving guide works through the scenarios in full.
The bill nobody puts on the product page
An air-cooled miner needs a socket and a fan path. A hydro rack unit needs a closed liquid loop, and the loop is the expensive part.
| Component | What it does | Typical cost |
|---|---|---|
| CDU (coolant distribution unit) | Pumps and filters the coolant, holds temperature | $8k–$20k for ~10 units; $30k–$70k for 50+ |
| Dry cooler / radiator | Dumps ~11 kW of heat per 3U outdoors | Sized per MW; a 12 kW radiator cannot take two S23 Hyds in series |
| Manifolds, hoses, leak detection | Distributes coolant to each unit, catches failures | $3k–$15k per rack |
| Three-phase electrical | 380–415 V distribution to the rack | Site-dependent |
| Coolant | Deionised water or antifreeze, never tap water | Ongoing |
Cost ranges are from BT-Miners' June 2026 hydro infrastructure guide, which puts a small deployment at $15,000–$60,000 or more. The radiator limit is from Mineshop's S23 notes. Simple Mining's August 2026 write-up is blunter: the CDU and plumbing often cost more than the miner, and tap water corrodes water blocks within months.
Operator comments on BitcoinTalk add three practical points:
- Once pumps and radiator fans are counted, a single S23 Hyd draws closer to 6,000 W at the wall than its rated 5,510 W.
- Underclocking by 5–15% is a common way to fit a loop you already own, and Bitmain hardware tends to run better for it.
- One experienced miner calculated about 1,320 days to break even when moving an existing S21 XP air setup to S23 liquid, once more than $50,000 of infrastructure was included.
Bitmain also did not publish pump pressure or permitted coolant temperature rise at launch, which forum users flagged at the time.
For one buyer with one or two machines, the conclusion is simple: you will host it, not run it. Before you buy, confirm the facility actually has hydro racks. Most air-cooled sites do not, and a 3U sitting in a warehouse waiting for a loop earns nothing. Our hosting page lists rates by location, and our per-kWh hosting price guide explains what should be included in the rate.
S23 Hyd 3U vs the other petahash-class machines
The 3U's real rival is MicroBT's rack-mounted WhatsMiner M79S. The comparison depends on which M79S figure you believe. MicroBT's launch specs, as reported by Hashrate Index, give 930–1,040 TH/s at 13.5 J/TH and about 14 kW. The widely quoted "1.35 PH/s at 20 kW" is an overclocked configuration.
| Machine | Hashrate | Power | J/TH | kWh per PH per day | Break-even $/kWh |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Antminer S23 Hyd 3U | 1,160 TH/s | 11,020 W | 9.5 | 228 | $0.179 |
| Antminer S23e Hyd 2U | 865 TH/s | 8,650 W | 10.0 | 240 | $0.170 |
| WhatsMiner M79S (stock) | ~1,040 TH/s | ~14,040 W | 13.5 | 324 | $0.126 |
| WhatsMiner M79S (overclocked) | 1,350 TH/s | 20,000 W | 14.8 | 356 | $0.115 |
Per petahash, the 3U burns about 30% less electricity than a stock M79S. At $0.06 per kWh that is roughly $5.80 a day per petahash in the S23's favour: about $2,100 a year per PH, or $2,400 a year for one 3U. Over a two-to-four-year hosting contract, that efficiency gap is worth more than any difference in purchase price. If you are already on a MicroBT loop and platform, our WhatsMiner buying guide covers the M7x hydro models.
Shipping: what is actually available
- May 2025: the S23 series was launched at WDMS in Las Vegas with the S23, S23 Hyd and S23 Immersion. The 3U was being promoted by resellers within a week.
- Q1 2026: first S23 Hyd batches shipped. Resellers disagree on the 3U's first release, with January or May 2026 both cited.
- Q2 2026: S23e Hyd 2U batches began (June 2026 listings).
- August 2026: Bitmain launched the S23 XP Hyd (600 TH/s, 8.9 J/TH) at WDMS Hong Kong, shipping from November 2026.
- Now: the 3U shows as in stock at some resellers, while others offer a March 2027 batch. One distributor's page says both "ships Q3" and "dispatch Q2". Ask for the batch month in writing and a serial number range before paying.
Our upcoming miners tracker follows what Bitmain, MicroBT, Canaan and Bitdeer are actually shipping, as opposed to announcing.
Which S23 fits which buyer
- Air-cooled hosting, one or two machines: the S23 318 TH/s. At 11 J/TH it is the most efficient air machine you can buy today. It fits any standard hosting slot and has the lowest price per terahash in the family.
- You already have a hydro loop: the S23 Hyd 580 TH/s slots into existing Antminer hydro infrastructure. The S23 XP Hyd is worth the wait if you can take a November batch: 8.9 J/TH is the best break-even in the family at $0.191.
- Rack or container operators building density: the S23 Hyd 3U or the S23e Hyd 2U. The 3U has the better efficiency. The 2U fits more hashrate per rack height.
- Immersion tanks: the S23 Immersion. At 12 J/TH it is the least efficient S23, but it drops into tanks you already run. Our immersion guide covers the fluids and tank maths.
- Home or apartment: none of them. A three-phase liquid loop is not a home project. See our guide to miners that genuinely work on a 230 V socket instead.
The whole range is on our Bitmain page, and our Antminer range guide places the S23 against the S21 generation it replaces.
The short version
The S23 Hyd 3U is the most efficient petahash-class miner shipping in volume. It earns about $47 a day gross at today's hashprice and uses 30% less power per petahash than its MicroBT rival. It is also a data-centre product, priced at roughly $24.5–25.9 per terahash, that needs three-phase power and a professionally built liquid loop. Its payback is long and runs straight through the 2028 halving.
If you have the site, or a host with hydro racks, it is the right machine for this cycle. If you do not, the air-cooled S23 at 11 J/TH gets you most of the efficiency gain with none of the plumbing.