Bitcoin Halving Countdown
Days, blocks, and cycle progress to the next halving — with the closed-form reward step you’ll see when block 1,050,000 lands.
Days until halving
718
2h 3m remaining
Cycle progress
50.8%
742 days since 19 Apr 2024
Blocks remaining
≈ 103,216
to block 1,050,000
Next reward
1.5625 BTC
from 3.125 BTC today
Price multiple since the 19 Apr 2024 halving
Day 742 of this cycle · 1.23× halving-day price
Chart data refreshed 01 May 2026 · 20:20 UTC
TL;DR
- What it is
- The countdown to the next Bitcoin halving — the block where the per-block subsidy drops from 3.125 BTC to 1.5625 BTC. The schedule is enforced by Bitcoin Core’s subsidy function, every 210,000 blocks since genesis.
- Where we are
- 718 days, 2 hours remaining at last refresh, with the cycle 50.8% through epoch 4. Approximately 103,216 blocks to go before block 1,050,000 mints the next subsidy step.
- Why it matters
- When the halving lands, daily issuance drops from 450 BTC to 225 BTC — the protocol’s structural supply step. At today’s spot, that’s the difference between $35.2M of new BTC sold by miners per day and $17.6M.
- The catch
- Halvings are block-driven, not calendar-driven. The countdown is a planning estimate against a +4-year-from-prior projection; the protocol delivers on block height. For the historical schedule, see Halving Dates; for the cycle-by-cycle price overlay, see Halving-Cycle Overlay.
How the countdown is built
01Block subsidy follows the consensus rule nSubsidy = 50 BTC; nSubsidy >>= floor(height / 210000); return nSubsidy.
Every 210,000 blocks the right-shift halves the reward; after 33 such halvings
it rounds to zero. The next halving lands at block 1,050,000 — that block height is the only date the protocol enforces. The calendar
date is a planning estimate: prior halving plus four years. The actual date is
set by however long the next 210,000 blocks take to mine.
Block intervals have averaged 9.6 minutes since genesis, against the ten-minute target. Difficulty re-targets every 2,016 blocks to pull the average back toward ten, but realised intervals have consistently undershot — every prior halving has arrived a few weeks ahead of its four-year mark. Rising hash rate between adjustments keeps the bias one-sided.
What changes at the halving
02Three things change at block 1,050,000. Per-block subsidy drops from 3.125 BTC to 1.5625 BTC. Daily issuance drops from 450 BTC to 225 BTC. Annualised monetary inflation moves from 0.82% to 0.41%. Difficulty, block target, and fee mechanics are unchanged.
At today’s spot of $78,199.03, that step is the difference between miners receiving roughly $35.2M of new BTC per day pre-halving and $17.6M per day after, before fees. The split between subsidy and fees is the live read on Daily Fees.
The schedule beyond the next halving
03Each row projects four years from its predecessor and applies the closed-form
subsidy floor(5,000,000,000 / 2n) satoshis per block. The
supply column shows the cumulative total at the close of each era. By the start
of epoch 8, more than 99.6% of the eventual 21,000,000 BTC asymptote will be in circulation; the remainder pays out slowly across the
next century.
| Era | Projected | Block | New reward | Supply after (BTC) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Halving 5 | 19 Apr 2028 | 1,050,000 | 1.5625 BTC | 20,671,875 |
| Halving 6 | 19 Apr 2032 | 1,260,000 | 0.78125 BTC | 20,835,938 |
| Halving 7 | 19 Apr 2036 | 1,470,000 | 0.390625 BTC | 20,917,969 |
| Halving 8 | 19 Apr 2040 | 1,680,000 | 0.1953125 BTC | 20,958,984 |
When this countdown is wrong
04The clock is calendar-paced; the protocol isn’t. The countdown above ticks against a +4-year-from-prior date, refreshed each visit. The true measure is block height — the protocol delivers when block 1,050,000 is mined, regardless of what the calendar reads. Real block intervals have run a little under the ten-minute target, so the block-anchored date is typically earlier than the calendar projection.
The cycle-progress percentage uses calendar elapsed, not block height. Without a live block-height feed on this page, “cycle progress” is the ratio of days-since-prior-halving to days-to-projected-next-halving. When the block-height path runs ahead of the calendar, as it has in every prior cycle, the displayed percentage understates protocol-level progress by a few points.
Forward returns aren’t guaranteed. Each of the first three halvings was followed within 12–18 months by a new all-time high. The 2024 cycle’s forward 12-month return was the smallest of the four; institutional flow into spot ETFs is a substantial new variable. Treat the historical pattern as well-documented and the forward extrapolation as contested.
Common questions
05Frequent searches around “bitcoin halving countdown”, answered against the data above.
- When is the next Bitcoin halving?
- The next halving is projected for around 19 Apr 2028, when block 1,050,000 is mined. The exact calendar date floats by a few weeks — block intervals have averaged 9.6 minutes since genesis, against the ten-minute target, so halvings have historically arrived early. The countdown ticks against a four-year-from-prior projection; refresh for the latest block-anchored figure.
- How many days are left until the next Bitcoin halving?
- 718 days, 2 hours at last refresh, against a projected halving on 19 Apr 2028. Approximately 103,216 blocks remain at the current cycle pace. The projection is calendar-based and refits on each visit; the block-anchored figure is what the protocol actually delivers.
- What happens at the Bitcoin halving?
- Three things change at the next halving block. The per-block subsidy drops from 3.125 BTC to 1.5625 BTC. New BTC issued per day drops from 450 to 225. Annualised inflation moves from 0.82% to 0.41%. Block target, fee mechanics, and difficulty re-targeting are unchanged.
- Why do halvings sometimes happen earlier than expected?
- Halvings are block-counted, not calendar-counted. The protocol re-targets difficulty every 2,016 blocks to hold an average ten-minute interval, but realised intervals have run a little under ten minutes — closer to 9.6 since genesis. Across 210,000 blocks, that pulls each halving forward by roughly a month. Hash-rate growth between difficulty adjustments amplifies the effect.
- Does the halving still affect the Bitcoin price?
- Each of the first three halvings was followed within 12 to 18 months by a new all-time high; the 2024 cycle has had a softer forward return. Several macro analysts have argued the four-year halving thesis is structurally weaker since the spot ETFs launched: institutional flow now sets the marginal price, and the supply shock at the halving is a smaller share of daily turnover than it was in earlier cycles. The historical pattern is well-documented; the forward extrapolation is contested.