BlockOps Mining · Updated August 23, 2026
This is general information, not legal advice. Curtailment terms differ by site and by contract. Read your own agreement, and ask for the clauses in writing before you sign.
Key Takeaways
1
Curtailment costs you whatever your contract charges when nothing is hashing. In a standard pass-through deal the power drops to zero, so what is left is the flat monthly stuff: management fees, rack fees, minimum commitments.
2
How you get billed matters more than the rate you are quoted. An all-in rate rolls power and fees into one number, so you cannot see which part keeps charging when the machine is off. With pass-through plus a management fee, it all comes down to how that fee is worded.
3
Most contracts do not cap curtailment hours at all. Ask for a number in writing. Without one, a host can curtail you for as long as it wants and owes you nothing for it.
4
Curtailment usually does not count against uptime. A site can advertise 99% uptime while your machines sit off for days, because those hours get taken out before the number is worked out.
Want our curtailment terms in writing?
Open the marketplace to see machines and rates, or ask the team directly.
Rates as low as $0.07/kWh pass-through, curtailment capped at 120 hrs/yr, you keep title.
What is curtailment in bitcoin mining hosting?
Curtailment
A scheduled or emergency reduction in power delivered to a mining site, usually because the grid operator is paying the site to stop consuming, or because the site’s power contract requires it during peak demand. Your machines stop hashing for the duration.
A grid operator pays big flexible loads to cut consumption when the system is tight. Sometimes the site’s own power contract requires it during peak demand instead. ERCOT pays two ways: one payment for being available to shut down, and a second for the power you actually stop using. [1]
Sites with the lowest rates usually got them by agreeing to shut down on request. That is a fair trade when the hours are capped and you are told about them up front. An uncapped 6 cent rate can cost you more over a year than a capped 8 cent rate, because you have no idea how many days you will be off. Our own terms are on the hosting page.
Do you get billed while your miner is curtailed?
Short answer
In a pass-through structure you are not billed for electricity you did not consume, because you pay the utility’s actual cost per kWh. The charge that usually keeps running is the fixed one. Management fees, rack or capacity fees, and minimum commitments are often written to keep charging whether or not your machine is hashing. That clause, not the headline rate, decides what curtailment costs you.
Three structures cover almost every hosting agreement, and each one goes wrong in a different place.
All-in cents per kWh.
Normally: one blended rate for every kWh consumed.
While curtailed: no kWh consumed means no power charge, but check whether a capacity or rack fee continues separately.
Where the risk sits: the flat fee buried inside the blended rate.
Pass-through plus management fee.
Normally: utility cost at cost, plus a separate stated fee.
While curtailed: the power charge stops. If the fee is written as a monthly charge instead of a charge per hour of hashing, it keeps running. Nobody brings that up on the sales call.
Where the risk sits: how the contract words that fee.
Revenue share.
Normally: a percentage of what the machine mines.
While curtailed: you earn nothing and neither does the host.
Where the risk sits: shared, though you have no way to see how often it happens.
Normally: one blended rate for every kWh consumed.
While curtailed: no kWh consumed means no power charge, but check whether a capacity or rack fee continues separately.
Where the risk sits: the flat fee buried inside the blended rate.
Pass-through plus management fee.
Normally: utility cost at cost, plus a separate stated fee.
While curtailed: the power charge stops. If the fee is written as a monthly charge instead of a charge per hour of hashing, it keeps running. Nobody brings that up on the sales call.
Where the risk sits: how the contract words that fee.
Revenue share.
Normally: a percentage of what the machine mines.
While curtailed: you earn nothing and neither does the host.
Where the risk sits: shared, though you have no way to see how often it happens.
How many curtailment hours should you accept?
It depends on the site’s power contract, and no single number is honest for every site. Ask whether there is a cap in writing at all. Most agreements leave it open ended, which means the host carries none of the risk and you carry all of it.
Ask these three before you sign:
1. Is there a written annual cap on curtailment hours?
2. Do fixed fees accrue while I am curtailed?
3. What is the credit if you fail to deliver contracted power?
1. Is there a written annual cap on curtailment hours?
2. Do fixed fees accrue while I am curtailed?
3. What is the credit if you fail to deliver contracted power?
A host who cannot answer all three in writing is telling you something. The rest of the clauses worth checking are in our seven contract red flags and the hosting due diligence checklist.
Frequently asked questions
Does curtailment count against uptime?
Usually not. Most agreements leave curtailment, grid emergencies and scheduled maintenance out of the uptime calculation, so a site can advertise 99% uptime while your machines sit off for days. Ask whether the number is measured before or after those exclusions.
Can a host curtail me without notice?
For an emergency grid event, yes. The site has seconds to shed load and mining firmware executes the instruction in under a minute, so there is no window to contact customers.[2] For economic curtailment, where the site is choosing to sell power back rather than mine, a well written agreement requires advance notice and a log you can review.
Is curtailment the same as an outage?
No. Curtailment is a deliberate reduction the site agreed to in its power contract, and it is often compensated. An outage is an unplanned failure of power, network or cooling, and it is the host’s problem to fix and usually to credit.
Do I still owe hosting fees if the site is down for maintenance?
Almost always yes. Scheduled maintenance is normally left out of any service credit, so a site can take your machines down for a planned window and owe you nothing. Ask how many maintenance hours a year you should expect and whether they count separately from the curtailment cap.
Keep Reading
Seven red flags in a hosting contract
The clauses that turn a good rate into a bad deal, before you sign.
What a bad hosting contract looks like
A real agreement read line by line, including how the fees are worded.
Hosting due diligence checklist
What to verify about a site, its power contract and its operator.
Owner-operator or broker: how to tell
Who actually controls the curtailment terms you are being quoted.
See what hosting at BlockOps actually costs
The form opens our marketplace and puts you in front of the team. Tell us what you run and we will come back with rates and a racking date.
Rates as low as $0.07/kWh pass-through, curtailment capped at 120 hrs/yr, you keep title.