Pi Network Review: Is Mining Pi Worth Your Time at About 8 Cents a Coin?

Pi Network is a cryptocurrency project built around a phone app in which members, called Pioneers, tap a button once a day to "mine" Pi. Mining here means checking in, not lending your phone's processor: Pi issues new coins to active users under a formula, and you don't even need to keep the app open. The app is published by SOCIALCHAIN INC.

The project's Bootstrap phase began on 14 March 2019 and its Testnet in March 2020. An Enclosed Mainnet, with no outside connections, followed on 28 December 2021, and the Open Network went live at 8:00 UTC on 20 February 2025, letting outside exchanges and wallets connect. Maximum supply is 100 billion Pi: 65% for Pioneer mining rewards, 20% for the Core Team, 10% for a foundation reserve and 5% for liquidity.

You start a 24-hour session by tapping the lightning button. When the session lapses, all mining stops, every bonus included, until you tap again.

Pi's Mainnet formula starts from a systemwide base rate that Pi recalculates against a yearly supply cap that shrinks over time. Your individual rate adds a Security Circle bonus of 20% of the base rate for each active member, up to five, and a lockup bonus if you lock Mainnet Pi for two weeks to three years. Referral Team, node and app-usage bonuses then multiply on top of that individual rate.

Pi asks for an invitation code when you sign up: enter jimbb, our Pi username. That puts us in your Referral Team, and each active Referral Team member adds 25% of your individual base rate for as long as you're both mining. It goes one level deep only, so what people further along a chain do doesn't change anyone's rate, and nobody pays anybody to join.

Disclosure: jimbb is BonusRoam's own Pi account, so we get the same 25% bonus on our rate whenever you and we mine at the same time. Bonus Pi earned through a team member only becomes transferable as that member passes KYC.

Pi mined in the app isn't transferable until it is verified and migrated. KYC asks for your real name and government ID, Pi honours only accounts that belong to distinct real people, and you may hold one account. After you pass, you complete Pi's Mainnet Checklist and your balance moves to a Mainnet wallet protected by a passphrase; lose that passphrase and you can lose all the Pi in it.

Since 1 July 2024 a rolling six-month window has applied: unverified Pi older than six months doesn't make it to Mainnet, so leaving KYC for later costs you. The queues are long. Pi said on 30 January 2026 that 16 million Pioneers had migrated, and that it was only then unblocking nearly 2.5 million who had been held up by extra checks.

PI traded at about US$0.078 on 24 October 2026 on CoinGecko's market data, down about 62% over the year and around 97% below its US$2.99 high on 26 February 2025, six days after the Open Network launch. The busiest markets are on OKX, Gate, Bitget and MEXC, with Kraken also listing it. Pi doesn't run an exchange itself, and whether you can use one depends on where you live.

At that price, 100 Pi is worth about US$7.80 and 1,000 Pi about US$78. Pi's own FAQ says "Pi is NOT free money" and warns that no one can promise the project will succeed, so value any balance in the app at what it would sell for after migration, not at hopeful forecasts.

Take a Pioneer with three active Security Circle members and no lockup. Their individual rate is the base rate plus 60%, or 1.6 times base. With jimbb in their Referral Team and both of us mining, the Referral Team bonus adds 25% of that, so they mine at 2.0 times base. On days we aren't mining in the same window, they drop back to 1.6 times.

The base rate itself is the number you can't control: Pi recalculates it against its shrinking supply cap, and the app shows yours. Whatever it shows, multiply the Pi you could realistically mine in a year by about US$0.078 before deciding the daily tap is worth it, and remember none of it is spendable until KYC and migration.

Pi charges nothing to join or mine. The costs are your time, the ads the app carries, and your data, since KYC needs government ID. Selling Pi later means an exchange account with its own identity checks, trading fees and withdrawal fees, plus a transfer from your Pi wallet.

Lockups raise your mining rate but tie up Mainnet Pi for anything from two weeks to three years. Given how far PI's price has moved, a long lockup is a bet you can't get out of early.

On 24 October 2026 the Pi Network app was rated 4.2 from 13,134 ratings on the US App Store and 4.3 from about 952,000 ratings on Google Play, where it has over 100 million downloads.

Recent low ratings repeat the same themes: migration stuck on a Mainnet Checklist step for months or years, KYC passed and then reversed for extra checks, Pi lost when a KYC deadline ran out, loud ads, no human support for account or passphrase recovery, and years of tapping for little value.

Pi isn't a regulated financial product, so no deposit or investor protection covers Pi you mine or buy. It isn't a pyramid scheme in the usual sense, since no one pays to join and the referral bonus is one level deep, but it does collect government ID from everyone who wants their Pi, and the app is only offered where local law allows.

Be wary of anyone selling Pi before migration, "Pi wallet" sites that ask for your passphrase, and groups promising a fixed price. Pi's own announcements come through the app and minepi.com.

Join with jimbb if you're curious, can tap once a day without it becoming a chore, and will do KYC as soon as Pi offers it. Build a Security Circle only with people you trust.

Skip it if you want money for your time, since at today's price the return per tap is tiny, if you're uneasy giving ID to a crypto project, or if you'd buy PI on an exchange expecting community hype to lift the price.