How Darkbloom pays Mac providers: token earnings and base rewards
Updated
A Darkbloom provider earns from two separate sources. Token earnings pay for the requests your Mac serves. Base rewards pay a fixed amount every 5 minutes just for having a model loaded and ready, whether or not any request arrives. Everything below comes from Darkbloom’s open-source code and docs (links at the end), checked against three weeks of payouts on one Mac.
Token earnings
- Each request pays prompt tokens × the model’s input price plus output tokens × its output price. Prices are per million tokens and differ by model.
- The provider keeps all of it: Darkbloom’s global platform fee is currently 0%.
- A request from your own account to your own Mac settles at $0.
- Your share of requests depends on how fast your Mac is compared with other Macs serving the same model (see how Darkbloom routes requests).
Base rewards by memory tier
Every 5 minutes, each eligible Mac earns a slice of a monthly amount set by its memory. A Mac takes the highest tier its memory meets, so a 36 GB Mac is in the 32 GB tier. Below 24 GB there is no base reward.
- 24 GB: $10 a month
- 32 GB: $12 a month
- 48 GB: $16 a month
- 64 GB: $18 a month
- 96 GB: $22 a month
- 128 GB: $26 a month
- 192 GB: $30 a month
- 512 GB: $40 a month
What your Mac needs in every 5-minute period
- A model loaded and serving. Which model does not matter.
- Connected for at least 90% of the period. Credit scales from 0 at 90% to full at 100%, so 30 seconds offline costs the whole period and 15 seconds costs half.
- Memory pressure below 0.8 and a thermal state that isn’t critical.
- Public serving authorization, a linked account and a recognized Mac model.
The shared pool
Base rewards come from a $9,000-a-month pool. Half is reserved for 48–96 GB Macs. Within each period, Macs that earned least from requests are paid first. The tier amounts are targets, not a guarantee: when the pool for a period runs out, some eligible Macs get less or nothing for it. Base rewards are added on top of token earnings, not a top-up to a minimum.
What this means in practice
- Never leave the Mac with nothing loaded. With the shipped idle setting, the provider unloads models after 60 minutes without requests, and base rewards pause while nothing is loaded. darkbloom idle keep-loaded prevents that.
- Restarts and model switches usually cost one 5-minute period. On our test Mac, about 81% of switches lost the base reward for that period or the next.
- Heavy use of the Mac while it serves can push memory pressure past 0.8 and cost base rewards.
- For Macs that get few requests, base rewards are most of the income. On our test Mac they were about 18% of earnings.
- Darkbloom’s earnings page counts base-reward rows as jobs, so the job count overstates how many paid requests your Mac served.
Withdrawals
Standard withdrawals have no fee and a $1 minimum. Instant payouts cost 1.5%, at least $0.50.
Sources
- Darkbloom pricing model: github.com/Layr-Labs/d-inference/blob/master/docs/reference/pricing-model.md
- Darkbloom billing invariants: github.com/Layr-Labs/d-inference/blob/master/docs/architecture/billing.md
- Base-reward design: github.com/Layr-Labs/d-inference/blob/master/docs/design/base-rewards.md
How BloomGauge helps
BloomGauge shows base rewards separately from token earnings, per hour, so you can see when a period was missed. The Manager keeps a model loaded and restores it when a load fails, so the Mac doesn’t sit empty.
Questions
How much is the Darkbloom base reward?
It depends on memory: $10 a month for 24 GB, $12 for 32 GB, $16 for 48 GB, $18 for 64 GB, $22 for 96 GB, $26 for 128 GB, $30 for 192 GB and $40 for 512 GB, paid in 5-minute slices while a model is loaded and the Mac is connected at least 90% of each period.
Why did I miss Darkbloom base rewards?
Usually nothing was loaded (the idle setting unloads models after 60 minutes without requests), the Mac was offline or restarting for more than 30 seconds of a 5-minute period, or memory pressure went above 0.8.
Does Darkbloom take a fee from providers?
Darkbloom’s code sets the global platform fee to 0%, so providers keep the full price of each request. Standard withdrawals are free; instant payouts cost 1.5% (minimum $0.50).
Related
- How Darkbloom decides which Mac gets a request
- How much can a Mac earn on Darkbloom?
- Is Darkbloom worth it on a Mac?
- Darkbloom on a Mac Studio: what Max and Ultra Macs earn
- Darkbloom on a 24 GB or 32 GB Mac: what fits and what it earns
- Darkbloom model prices: what each model pays per million tokens
- Darkbloom withdrawals: minimums, fees, countries and “On the way”
Updated 2026-09-29. Still stuck? Ask in #bloomgauge on the Darkbloom Slack or contact us. BloomGauge is independent and not affiliated with Darkbloom.