How to Buy a Laptop With Bitcoin, Step by Step

Paying for a laptop with Bitcoin takes about ten minutes of your time and one transfer from your wallet. This guide goes through it in order, including the parts people usually get wrong, so you know what to expect before you send anything.

Before you start

You need three things: a Bitcoin wallet you control (or an exchange account you can withdraw from), enough Bitcoin to cover the order total plus the network fee, and a delivery address in a country we ship to. The shipping page lists where we deliver and what it costs.

If you have never sent Bitcoin before, send a small test amount to a second wallet of your own first. It takes a few minutes and removes most of the worry.

Step 1: build the laptop

Open the builder and choose a chassis, mainboard, memory, storage, screen, keyboard, expansion cards and a charger. It only offers parts that work together, and it repairs the rest for you. Change the chassis, for example, and it swaps the screen and keyboard for the closest ones that fit, then tells you what it changed.

Not sure where to begin? The presets are complete laptops you can change part by part.

Step 2: choose Bitcoin at checkout

At checkout you give an email address (used only to reach you about this order) and a delivery address, then pick a coin. Choose Bitcoin. The order is priced in US dollars, and we convert the total into Bitcoin when you place the order, so you see one exact amount to send.

Step 3: send the exact amount

The order page shows the amount, one address and a QR code. Use the copy buttons, or scan the code with your wallet app. Keep three rules in mind:

• Send the exact amount. If you pay from an exchange, find out whether it takes its withdrawal fee out of the amount you type. If it does, add the fee on top so the full amount arrives.
• Send Bitcoin only, on the Bitcoin network. Bitcoin Cash, wrapped Bitcoin and other lookalikes are different coins and may not be recoverable.
• Send once, within 2 hours. The address and the amount belong to this order.

Fees and confirmations

Bitcoin blocks arrive about every ten minutes, and the payment network usually waits for a confirmation or two. In practice, allow 10 to 30 minutes after you send. When the network sees your transfer, the order page changes to "Payment detected" by itself, and you can close the tab and come back later.

Bitcoin fees depend on how busy the network is, and your wallet shows the fee before you confirm. A very low fee can leave a transfer waiting for hours, so use the standard or medium setting rather than the cheapest one.

If something goes wrong

• You sent a little too much or too little. The order pauses and a person contacts you with the options. Nothing is lost.
• The window closed before your transfer arrived. A payment already on its way still reaches us, and a person matches it to your order by hand. It takes longer than usual, but it is not lost. Email us with your order ID.
• You sent on the wrong network. Contact us straight away with the transaction ID. We cannot always recover it, but we will try.

After you pay

Your order joins the queue and the page shows each stage: payment confirmed, building, shipped, delivered. A person on our team orders or pulls every part, assembles the laptop, installs the operating system and runs burn-in tests before it ships. When it leaves us, the tracking number appears on the same page.

Is Bitcoin the right coin for this?

For a laptop, usually yes. It is widely held and easy to send from almost anywhere. If privacy matters most to you, read the guide to paying with Monero. If you would rather not think about price swings between deciding and paying, a stablecoin keeps the amount steady.

Every coin we accept is listed on the coins page, with the networks each one runs on. The Bitcoin page has the network notes, and the FAQ covers everything else.