Can I change my stake pool later?

Yes. You can redelegate your ADA to another stake pool at any time for a small network fee, and your ADA is never locked. The new delegation becomes active in the epoch after next. Your old pool still earns you rewards for three more payouts and the new pool takes over from the fourth, so there is no gap. Cardano.org's delegation FAQ explains the handover.

What happens if my stake pool underperforms or shuts down?

You won't lose your ADA, but you may earn fewer or no rewards if the pool doesn't produce blocks. A pool that retires earns nothing, and your delegation won't move to a new pool by itself, so you need to redelegate. Cexplorer keeps a list of delegations to retired pools you can use to check whether yours is affected.

How do I find mission-driven or charity stake pools?

Look at stake pool alliances, groups of independent pools that share a cause. Mission Driven Pools brings together pools that fund community and member projects, and Climate Neutral Cardano groups pools focused on sustainability. ADAStack lists more in its stake pool alliances category, so you can earn staking rewards while supporting a cause.

Do I need to claim my staking rewards manually?

Not to earn them. Rewards are paid every epoch (five days) into your wallet's reward account and automatically count toward your delegated stake. To withdraw them into your spendable balance, your stake key must also delegate its voting power to a DRep (a delegated representative who votes on governance proposals) or to Abstain or No Confidence. This rule took effect with the Plomin hard fork.

Can I stake ADA from a mobile device?

Yes. Mobile wallets such as VESPR and Begin let you delegate ADA to a stake pool directly from your phone, on both iOS and Android. Begin also lets you delegate your voting power to a DRep in the app, which you need before you can withdraw rewards. ADAStack lists more options in its mobile wallets category.

How to Stake ADA on Cardano? - Adastack Ecosystem Explorer

Staking ADA lets you earn rewards for helping run the Cardano network. Instead of leaving your ADA idle in a wallet, you delegate it to a stake pool and receive a share of the rewards that pool earns. Each step is below, even if you're brand new.

What Is a Stake Pool?

A stake pool is a server that produces new blocks, the records of the latest transactions on Cardano. Stake pool operators (SPOs) run the technical infrastructure, and ADA holders delegate their ADA to a pool. When the pool produces blocks, it shares the rewards with everyone delegating to it.

What Is Staking?

Staking is the process of delegating your ADA to a stake pool. The more stake a pool has, the more often the protocol picks it to produce a block. Each block earns rewards, and you receive a share in proportion to your stake after the pool takes its fees.¹

Rewards vary by pool and depend on the total stake in the network. The Cardano Foundation's reward calculator, which uses live mainnet data, puts the yearly rate at about 2%.²

Your ADA never leaves your wallet and stays fully in your control. It is not locked: you can spend it, move it, or switch pools at any time.¹

How to Choose a Good Stake Pool

A little research helps. Here's what to look for:

Performance. Look for pools that consistently produce the blocks expected for their size. A small pool wins fewer blocks, so its rewards swing more from epoch to epoch than a large pool's do. Judge performance over months, not a single epoch.¹
Fees. Each pool charges a fixed fee per epoch plus a margin, which is a percentage of the remaining rewards. The fixed fee can't go below a protocol minimum, 170 ADA per epoch, and on-chain governance can change that minimum.³ Lower fees leave more for delegators, but the operator also needs fees to cover the cost of running the pool.
Saturation. A pool is saturated when its stake passes a protocol limit. Past that point, extra delegation stops adding rewards, so everyone in the pool earns less per ADA. The limit is the network's total stake divided by a protocol parameter, k, which has been 500 since December 2020.⁴⁵ That works out to roughly 78 million ADA per pool, and it shifts slowly as the total stake changes. Wallets and pool explorers show each pool's saturation as a percentage. Choose a pool under 100%.
Pledge. The pledge is the operator's own ADA locked into the pool. If the pool's real pledge drops below the amount it declared, nobody in the pool earns rewards for that epoch.¹
Mission or purpose. Some pools support charities, education, or open-source development, and many belong to stake pool alliances. You can support causes you care about while earning rewards.
Reputation. Use stake pool explorers such as Cexplorer (formerly ADApools) or PoolTool to see each pool's history and stats.

What You'll Need to Get Started

Some ADA. If you don't have any yet, see how to buy ADA.
A self-custody Cardano wallet that supports staking. If you're starting from scratch, follow how to set up a Cardano wallet. Options include:
- Lace
- VESPR
- Eternl
- Typhon
- Begin
- Daedalus, a desktop wallet that runs a full Cardano node

More options are in the Cardano wallets section.

How to Stake ADA: Step-by-Step

Step 1: Move ADA to Your Wallet

If your ADA is on an exchange, withdraw it to your own Cardano wallet that supports staking.

Step 2: Open the Staking Tab

Once your wallet is funded, go to the staking, delegation, or dashboard section. The label varies by wallet.

Step 3: Choose a Stake Pool

You'll see a list of stake pools. Most wallets let you search by ticker or name and sort by return, fees, and saturation (skip anything over 100%). Use the checklist above, and look up a pool's history on a stake pool explorer if your wallet shows little detail. The Cardano.org delegation page also shows a random set of pools that meet basic minimums for stake, pledge, margin, and saturation.¹

Step 4: Delegate Your ADA

Click "delegate" or "stake", confirm the pool, and sign the transaction in your wallet. A small network fee applies, about 0.2 ADA. The first time you stake from a wallet, it also registers your stake key with a 2 ADA deposit, which is refunded in full if you later deregister.⁶

Step 5: Delegate Your Voting Power

Since the Plomin hard fork in January 2025, you can only withdraw staking rewards once your stake key also has an active vote delegation.⁷ You can delegate to a DRep (a delegated representative who votes on governance proposals for you), or choose Abstain or No Confidence. Rewards keep accumulating either way, but you can't move them into your spendable balance until you've made this choice.¹

Several wallets, including Eternl, Typhon, and Daedalus, let you pick a DRep inside the wallet. Any wallet that supports CIP-95, including Lace and VESPR, can connect to GovTool to do the same.⁸ For how DReps and voting work, see what is Cardano governance.

Step 6: Start Earning Rewards

A new delegation becomes active in the epoch after next. If the pool produces blocks, your first rewards arrive about 15 to 20 days after you delegate, then every epoch (five days) after that.¹⁹ Rewards automatically count toward your delegated stake, so they compound with no action needed.¹ Rewards sit in a separate reward account. Depending on the wallet, they're withdrawn automatically the next time you send ADA, or with a "withdraw rewards" button.

Avoid These Common Mistakes

Don't stake through an exchange or custodial platform if you want full control. The platform holds your ADA, not you.
Avoid saturated pools. They pay lower rewards.
Don't skip vote delegation. Without it, your rewards build up but can't be withdrawn.
Check that your pool is still running. A retired pool earns no rewards, and your ADA won't move to a new pool by itself. Cexplorer keeps a list of delegations to retired pools.
Never share your recovery phrase, not even with someone offering to "help you stake."

Need Help Choosing a Stake Pool?

These guides go into more detail on how to choose a pool:

7 Things to Consider When Choosing a Cardano Stake Pool: Written guide by Viper Staking
Don't Let Your ADA Sleep: A Practical Guide to Cardano Staking: Written guide on the Cardano Forum
Staking guides: More staking guides listed on ADAStack