Which Bitaxe to buy in 2026: Gamma 601, 602, 603, GT, Hex or Touch?

For a first machine, get a Bitaxe Gamma, whether it carries the number 601, 602 or 603: same BM1370 Bitmain's chip from the Antminer S21 Pro, also used in the Bitaxe Gamma and most recent desk miners. chip, same stock settings, about 1.2 TH/s rated for 15 to 18 W, on a 5 V supply. It is the machine in my guides, about €60 depending on the seller: my Bitaxe Gamma review.

For twice the hashrate Computing power: the number of attempts per second of a machine or of the whole network. The higher it is, the more tickets you play in each draw. in a single box, the Gamma Turbo (GT 801) carries two BM1370 chips, but it runs on 12 V and its stock fan made me replace it. The Gamma Hex (six chips, 12 V) is for people who already know their way around. The older Supra, Ultra and Max only make sense second-hand, for little money.

This page covers Bitaxe models only. To compare them with other brands (NerdQAxe, Avalon, Thor), see which miner for home mining.

Each Bitaxe carries a board number: the hundreds give the family (1 for the Max, 2 for the Ultra, 3 for the Hex, 4 for the Supra, 6 for the Gamma, 7 for the Supra Hex, 8 for the Gamma Turbo), the units give the revision. Newer boards move to four digits, like the Gamma Hex 1300. Every board in the table is supported by ESP-Miner 2.15.4, the official firmware, which also gives their input voltage, 5 or 12 V.

For the Gamma, AxeOS works out 1.07 TH/s at 525 MHz, below the 1.2 TH/s rated in the Gamma repository: the gap is explained in Bitaxe overclock. The GT figures come from the spec sheet in my Gamma GT review; in AxeOS I read 2.08 then 2.28 TH/s.

These are revisions of the same board, not different models. The bitaxeGamma release notes show it:

• 600 (October 2024): the first version, built on the Supra 402 with the BM1370 chip and a TPS546 voltage regulator.
• 601: a 4-pin JST fan connector, easier to assemble, and better routing of the fan traces.
• 602 (April 2025): manufacturing and routing improvements. The repository history lists wider chip power traces, more input vias, a different inductor, a fixed BM1370 footprint and reworked heatsink mounting holes.
• 603: the number moved to 603 in the files at the end of April 2025, and the release came out in February 2026. It adds resistors on the I2C bus, on the chip reset line and above all on the CC pins of the USB-C port. Without those, a Bitaxe is not detected when plugged into a computer’s USB-C port with a USB-C to USB-C cable (issue 37). It also removes an unused fan header.

What does not change: the chip, the 5 V barrel jack and the stock settings. The ESP-Miner 2.15.4 factory configuration files are identical for all three boards, apart from the number:

The only firmware difference is the first-boot self-test: it accepts up to 22 W on a 601, and up to 25 W on a 602 or 603.

In practice, do not pay more for a 602 or 603 to get more hashrate: there is none. The 603 is handier if you reflash the machine over USB from a computer with only USB-C ports. On a 601 or 602, a USB-A to USB-C cable, with an adapter if needed, does the job: that is the workaround given in the issue. Routine updates need no cable at all, they run from the browser: AxeOS update.

The Gamma Turbo, or GT, puts two BM1370 chips on a bigger board. According to its repository, the 801, released in January 2026, is the first official version, with improvements over the 800 boards that came before it: changed components (TPS546D24S regulators), configuration resistors removed, a five-hole heatsink mount, test points added. The 800 boards were nonetheless sold in 2025: ESP-Miner supported them from version 2.8 (May 2025) to 2.12, and only the 801 has been in its board list since 2.13. A GT 800 is therefore a genuine Gamma Turbo from the previous generation: ask for the exact number, and at the same price prefer an 801.

Two differences from the Gamma matter when buying. Power: the GT expects 12 V through an XT30 connector, not the Gamma’s 5 V barrel jack. And noise: with its stock fan, mine ran at 55% and was very loud. A 60 mm Noctua made it nearly silent, with 2.28 TH/s for about 50 W read in AxeOS. The full duel: Gamma GT vs Gamma.

The Touch, finally, is not a mining board. In the official repositories, it is a 4.3-inch touch screen with its own ESP32-S3 A microcontroller worth a few euros, the kind in smart plugs. It can compute SHA-256, but millions of times slower than an ASIC chip: an ESP32 miner has no real chance. The lottery miner trap chip that plugs into the BAP (Bitaxe Accessory Port). Its firmware repository, BAP-GT-TOUCH, describes it as the first official accessory to use that port: it shows hashrate, temperatures and power draw, and sets frequency, voltage and Wi-Fi. I found no “Touch” board in the ESP-Miner list: a Bitaxe sold as “Touch” is therefore a mining board shipped with this screen. Ask which one, and check it in AxeOS.

The Ultra (BM1366, 300 to 600 GH/s for up to 15 W according to the OSMU wiki), the Max (BM1397, 250 to 450 GH/s) and the Supra (BM1368, no published figure, 0.63 TH/s expected by AxeOS) all run on 5 V and are still supported by ESP-Miner 2.15.4. For a similar power draw, the Ultra and the Max deliver two to five times less hashrate than a Gamma. New, they make little sense next to the Gamma; second-hand, only for little money, to learn.

“Bitaxe Hex” means three different machines, all on 12 V:

• the original Hex (boards 302 and 303, six BM1366), which its repository still calls unfinished, at around 50 to 60 W;
• the Supra Hex (701 and 702, six BM1368), for which I found no dedicated bitaxeorg repository: AxeOS expects 3.75 TH/s;
• the Gamma Hex (1300, six BM1370), with a 1.9-inch colour screen and a 12 V input through a 6-pin Molex connector (its repository): AxeOS expects 8.45 TH/s, and the self-test targets 140 W.

Before buying a “Hex”, ask for the board number: it tells you everything. Another Gamma variant, the Gamma Duo (650, February 2026), reuses two BM1370 chips judged low-performing, on 5 V, at 400 MHz stock: AxeOS expects 1.63 TH/s.

• First machine, small budget: a Gamma 601, 602 or 603, about €60. At 18 W, count about €32 of electricity a year at €0.20 per kWh. The step-by-step setup: Bitaxe setup guide.
• Least noise: a Gamma with a 5 V Noctua NF-A4x10 fan, which the official repository recommends for “a much more pleasant experience”. A Bitaxe is still a fan spinning day and night: for real silence, look beyond Bitaxe, like the water-cooled NerdQAxe++ Hydro or the NerdQX 8T.
• More hashrate, one machine: the GT 801, on 12 V (I paid about €175 for mine on AliExpress), about €88 of electricity a year. Two Gammas do as much with better efficiency; the GT’s advantage is a single box to set up.
• The power supply you already have: Gamma, Gamma Duo, Supra, Ultra and Max on 5 V, GT and Hex on 12 V. The Gamma repository is blunt: “5V DC Only!”, any other voltage damages the board, and many supplies of other voltages use the same plug. It asks for more than 4 A without dropping below 5 V, so often a 25 to 30 W supply.
• Keen to overclock Pushing the chip's frequency and voltage for more hashrate. It draws and heats noticeably more: on the Thor X1, +50% hashrate for 2.1 times the power. The review: the Gamma handles it with good cooling, the GT needs its power supply sorted first. The method: Bitaxe overclock.

The Bitaxe is open source: the board designs are published under the CERN-OHL-S v2 licence, the ESP-Miner firmware under GPL-3.0. Anyone may build and sell a board, but the licence requires giving every buyer the complete source files, or telling them where to find them. The name and logo, on the other hand, are trademarks of bitaxeorg, according to bitaxe.org.

1. The seller. The project keeps a seller list by region. To be listed, a shop must sell genuine Bitaxe hardware, not clones, and the maintainers also look at the photos (real product photos), the link to bitaxe.org on the product page and the name spelled Bitaxe, not BitAxe (criteria). A shop missing from the list is not necessarily dubious, but ask it the questions below.
2. The product page. It should give the board number, the chip and the supply voltage, consistent with the table above. A single-chip Gamma rated at 2 TH/s at stock, or a 5 V board shipped with a 12 V supply, are red flags.
3. The sources. For a derived board, modified by its maker, ask where its files are published: the licence requires it.
4. On arrival, in AxeOS. The System menu shows the model (Device Model), the board number (Board Version) and the chip (ASIC A chip built for a single task. Bitcoin mining chips can only compute hashes, but extremely fast. Type): a Gamma should show a board from 600 to 603 and a BM1370, a GT 800 or 801 and 2x BM1370. It is not absolute proof, since the same firmware can run on a clone, but a mismatch should worry you. Also replace the factory address before mining: Bitaxe setup guide.
5. The barcode. The Gamma has an official GTIN-13 code, 8720892478016, according to the OSMU wiki.

If you buy from MineShop, my channel’s partner shop (partner link: I earn a commission, and my code is in Support), run the same checks. Also beware of ESP32 “lottery miners” with no mining chip, sometimes sold next to Bitaxes: how to spot them.

Mining solo, a Gamma at 1.2 TH/s has about a 1 in 16,000 chance a year of finding a block, a GT at 2.28 TH/s about 1 in 8,400, and a Gamma Hex at the expected 8.45 TH/s about 1 in 2,270 (network as of 17 October 2026). The solo mining calculator redoes this live for any hashrate.

In a regular pool, a Gamma would earn on average about €14 a year before fees, for about €32 of electricity at €0.20 per kWh: it does not pay for its power. A Bitaxe is a way to learn and try your luck solo, not a source of income. The details: how much a Bitaxe earns and is Bitcoin mining profitable in 2026.

To mine solo without installing anything, FindMyBlock, the pool I built, charges a 0% fee, and a block reward goes straight to your address.