A Bitcoin block reward is the total amount a miner can claim for a valid block: the block subsidy (newly issued bitcoin) plus the transaction fees paid by transactions included in that block. The subsidy follows a schedule and halves every 210,000 blocks; fees vary with the transactions and demand for block space.
Block reward and block subsidy are not the same
The block reward combines two components. The block subsidy is newly issued bitcoin created under Bitcoin’s issuance schedule. Transaction fees are bitcoin already held by senders and paid to encourage miners to include their transactions.
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| Component | What it is | How it changes |
|---|---|---|
| Block subsidy | Newly issued bitcoin | Set by the block-height schedule and reduced at each halving. Bitcoin.org’s vocabulary says it began at 50 BTC in 2009. |
| Transaction fees | Existing bitcoin paid by transaction senders | Varies with the fees on transactions included in a particular block and demand for limited block space. Bitcoin.org’s fee explanation describes fees as an incentive for inclusion. |
The Bitcoin Developer Documentation defines block reward as the subsidy plus fees paid by transactions included in the block. Read its glossary definition.
How miners claim a block reward
A block’s first transaction is a special transaction called the coinbase transaction—unrelated to any exchange with a similar name. It is used to claim the block subsidy and collect the fees from the block’s other transactions. The claim cannot exceed the subsidy and fees available for that block; claiming more makes the coinbase transaction invalid. See the Bitcoin Developer Documentation’s block-chain reference.
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The reward is associated with a valid block, not a guaranteed fixed payment to every individual miner. Mining is competitive, and miners may work together or use arrangements in which rewards are divided according to contributed calculation. Bitcoin.org’s vocabulary describes this context.
Why the reward amount changes
The subsidy follows a schedule
The subsidy is reduced by half every 210,000 blocks, an interval Bitcoin.org describes as approximately four years. That is a block-count interval, not a fixed calendar date. Bitcoin.org also states that the supply schedule has a 21-million-coin cap. These schedule facts do not by themselves establish the total reward for a particular recent block.
Fees depend on each block
Fees are not a fixed charge set by a company or a constant amount added to every reward. They reflect the transactions included in a block and competition to use limited block space. The Bitcoin whitepaper describes transaction fees as the difference between transaction inputs and outputs, added to the block incentive; see the Bitcoin whitepaper.
As a result, the subsidy can be known from the applicable issuance schedule, but the total block reward also depends on that block’s fees. A live total requires data for the specific block; the schedule alone is not enough.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.When a claimed reward becomes spendable
Bitcoin imposes a 100-block maturity delay on coinbase outputs: the miner cannot spend the reward output until at least 100 blocks have been built on top of the block that created it. This helps avoid spending funds from a block that later becomes stale and is removed after a fork. The Bitcoin Developer Guide explains the rule and its rationale.
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