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How providers earn on Subnet 51

Providers on Subnet 51 earn in two parallel streams: rental fees (paid by renters for using your GPUs) and subnet emission (distributed by Bittensor validators). Both are denominated in alpha, but they land in different places: rental fees are transferred to your coldkey once per day (with a 2-day delay), while subnet emission accrues as alpha stake on your hotkey every tempo (~72 minutes). For live numbers, see the rewards calculator.

The 30-second answer​

  • Rental fees: You earn a share of every USD that renters pay to use your GPUs. A renter pays hourly; the Lium billing system transfers your share to your coldkey once per day.
  • Subnet emission: Bittensor emits 41% of every epoch's emission to Subnet 51 providers. Validators set your weight via Yuma Consensus, and the emission accrues as alpha stake on your hotkey every tempo (~72 minutes) — it does not flow through Lium's billing system.
  • Two destinations: Rental fees arrive as a discrete daily transfer to your coldkey; emission shows up as continuous stake growth on your hotkey each epoch. To see emission, look at your hotkey's Stake on the Subnet 51 page — it is not a wallet "Transfers" entry.

Worked example​

Suppose you operate 8×H100 GPUs priced at $1.26/GPU/hour with typical rental utilization:

  • Rental income (typical daily usage): ~$193 daily in USD → you receive your share (via the calculator for current fee split)
  • Emission income (estimated): ~45–90 α per day (varies with validator score and total subnet activity)
  • Total daily: Roughly $140–$250 equivalent in alpha — rental fees to your coldkey (with a 2-day delay), emission as stake on your hotkey (each tempo)

Note: This is illustrative. For current numbers, use the Rewards Calculator, which queries live Subnet 51 scores and rental rates.

Two-stream diagram​

Next steps​

  • Rental Fees — How your share is calculated, where the money comes from, and when it's withheld
  • Subnet Emission — How Bittensor's per-tempo emission flows to providers, and how the burn-vs-rental split works
  • Rewards Calculator — Interactive tool with every input explained
  • Getting Paid — When you receive alpha, how to unstake, and current feature-flag state
  • FAQ — The most-asked questions answered with source links