Minting is STEPN’s way of breeding sneakers: you take two of your sneakers, burn tokens and scrolls, and get a shoebox with a new sneaker inside. It used to be the main money machine of the game. Today the STEPN mint cost decides whether a mint is a small profit, a break-even hobby, or a quiet loss. The tracker above prices any parent pair in GST and GMT, converts it to dollars with live prices, and tells you whether your expected sale beats the cost after marketplace fees. This page explains the rules, the numbers behind the tracker and how to read the result.
How minting works: the official rules
The rules come from the STEPN whitepaper’s Shoe-Minting page [source] . They have stayed fairly stable even while the costs changed many times.
Two Classic parents. You need two Classic sneakers. Rainbow and Soulbound sneakers do not count. Each parent must be level 5 or higher, because level 5 is the milestone that unlocks minting (and the first socket). If you still need to get there, our level-up guide lists what each level costs.
Full Durability. Both parents must be at 100% Durability. Repair first, then mint. The repair cost is not included in the tracker, so add it in your head.
Seven mints per sneaker. A sneaker can be a parent up to 7 times. Its “mint count” goes from 0 to 7, and once it reaches 7 it can no longer mint. Mint count also matters later: Enhancement, the system that burns five sneakers to make one of a higher quality, needs sneakers with a mint count of at least 2.
Cost per parent, then summed. The game calculates a cost for each parent based on its quality and mint count, and adds the two together. The first two mints of a sneaker cost the same. After that, each mint costs more.
Two Minting Scrolls. You also need 2 Minting Scrolls that match the parents’ quality [source] . Scrolls drop from Mystery Boxes and are burned when you mint. Even when they come free from your own boxes, they have a value, because a scroll used on one mint cannot be used on another.
Cooldowns. The whitepaper describes a 48-hour minting cooldown. That number has moved before: it went to 72 hours in June 2022 and came back to 48 hours a month later. The Help Center also lists a 72-hour minting cooldown for newly transferred or newly minted sneakers, and a 24-hour usage cooldown [source] . In practice: a sneaker you just bought or just hatched cannot breed straight away. Plan for that waiting time if you want to flip shoeboxes quickly.
Why the mint cost keeps changing
If you read an old STEPN guide, the mint numbers will look wrong. That is because FSL has changed the cost model several times, usually to slow down sneaker inflation. The changelog shows the main steps [source] .
In May 2022, a Common mint became half GST and half GMT. Before that, minting was paid mainly in GST, which created huge GST demand during the boom. In June 2022, the base cost went up and FSL introduced a Dynamic Minting Cost. From July 2022 that dynamic cost could change several times a day. Then in June 2023, the extra GMT part of the cost was linked to the GST:GMT ratio instead of to the GST price alone.
That last change is important for anyone pricing a mint. When GST falls against GMT, the game adjusts how much GMT the mint asks for. So you cannot simply take an old cost and multiply by today’s prices. The base table is a starting point; the app shows the real, current cost before you confirm. If you want the bigger picture of how minting fits into GST’s burn and supply, our GST tokenomics page covers it.
The community base-cost table
FSL does not publish a current per-parent cost table. The figures below are community figures from a widely used cheat sheet [source] . They are the base the tracker uses. Treat them as indicative, and always check the live cost in the app.
| Parent quality | GST per parent | GMT per parent | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Common (mints 0–1) | 180 | 20 | Community figure |
| Common (mint 6) | 630 | 70 | Community figure |
| Uncommon | 680 | 120 | Community base, mints 0–1 |
| Rare | 3,200 | 800 | Community base, mints 0–1 |
| Epic | 12,600 | 5,400 | Community base, mints 0–1 |
Look at the jump between qualities. A Rare parent costs more than 17 times the GST of a Common parent at its first mint, and 40 times the GMT. Epic is in another world again. This is why most minting in STEPN happens at Common and Uncommon level, and why higher-quality mints are usually done by players who already hold the parents and the scrolls.
How the tracker turns this into a cost
The tracker takes the table above and applies a multiplier for each parent’s mint count. The multipliers are 1, 1, 1.5, 2, 2.5, 3 and 3.5 for mint counts 0 to 6.
For Common sneakers, this reproduces the community endpoints exactly: 180 GST at mints 0–1 and 630 GST at mint 6 (180 × 3.5). The steps in between are a smooth line between those two known points. For Uncommon, Rare and Epic, the community sheet gives only a base, so applying the same multipliers to them is our modelling assumption. It keeps the shape of the curve consistent, but the real in-app steps for higher qualities may differ.
Then the tracker adds both parents together, multiplies the GST total by the live price of the realm you chose (sGST, bGST or pGST), multiplies the GMT total by the live GMT price, and adds two scrolls at the price you enter. You can override any price. The coloured bar shows how the cost splits between GST, GMT and scrolls. Do not be surprised if GMT is the bigger slice even though the GMT number is smaller: one GMT has been worth many GST for a long time.
Worked examples in tokens
Two fresh Commons (mint 0 and mint 0). 180 + 180 = 360 GST, and 20 + 20 = 40 GMT, plus two Common scrolls.
Commons at mint 2 and mint 3. The first parent costs 180 × 1.5 = 270 GST and 30 GMT. The second costs 180 × 2 = 360 GST and 40 GMT. Together: 630 GST and 70 GMT. One more mint on each parent and the bill keeps climbing.
Two Commons at mint 6. 630 + 630 = 1,260 GST and 140 GMT. That is three and a half times the cost of their first mint, for a shoebox of the same quality.
Uncommon (mint 0) with Common (mint 0). 680 + 180 = 860 GST, and 120 + 20 = 140 GMT. The shoebox odds for this pair, from the whitepaper, are 50% Common, 49% Uncommon and 1% Rare.
Two Rares (mint 0). 6,400 GST and 1,600 GMT. At this level, the scroll prices and the floor price of Rare shoeboxes matter much more than a few GST either way.
To show the dollar maths, take hypothetical prices of $0.001 per GST and $0.01 per GMT. These are not real quotes, just round numbers. The two fresh Commons would cost 360 × 0.001 = $0.36 in GST plus 40 × 0.01 = $0.40 in GMT, so $0.76 before scrolls. Swap in today’s prices with the live fields in the tracker; see the GST price page for the realm prices.
Shoebox outcomes and odds
What do you get? A shoebox, which opens into a sneaker. Its quality depends on both parents’ quality. The whitepaper gives one clear example: a Common × Uncommon pair gives 50% Common, 49% Uncommon and 1% Rare. The full odds table for every pair is in the app and the whitepaper; we do not repeat numbers we have not confirmed.
There is also a chance of a double mint: two shoeboxes from one mint. The whitepaper says this chance rises with mint count. That is one small reason some players keep minting older pairs even though they cost more.
The sneaker type in the box (Walker, Jogger, Runner, Trainer) and its base attributes are random within the quality’s range. A minted Common has base attributes between 1 and 10, so two Common shoeboxes can turn into sneakers of quite different value once opened. Whether you sell the closed box or open it first is a small gamble either way.
Break-even: the 6% you must not forget
Selling the shoebox is where most mint plans succeed or fail. The STEPN marketplace takes 2% as a platform fee and 4% as a royalty, so 6% in total [source] . The marketplace fee table also lists a 6% “Shoe-Minting” line.
The break-even rule is simple. You keep 94% of the sale price. So the sale price must be at least your total cost divided by 0.94, which means about 6.4% above cost just to stand still. If the mint cost you the equivalent of 100 GMT, you need to sell for about 106.4 GMT to break even.
The tracker does this for you. Type the price you expect, usually the current floor for that quality and realm, into “Expected shoebox sale”. The line under it turns green with your profit after fees or red with your loss, and shows what share of the cost was GMT. Marketplace prices are in GMT, so you will need to convert the floor to dollars before you type it. Our marketplace guide explains how floor prices form and where to check them.
Keep a mint log
The tracker has a small feature many players ask for: + Log mint. Each click saves the current pair, the GST and GMT burned and the dollar cost into a list on your device. The log keeps your last 30 mints and shows the running total of GST, GMT and dollars burned. It is stored only in your browser’s local storage. Nothing is sent to us, and clearing your browser data or pressing “Clear log” wipes it.
Why bother? Because minting losses hide well. Each mint looks small, and the shoebox sale feels like income. When you see that you burned the equivalent of, say, twenty Common sneakers’ worth of tokens over a month, it becomes much easier to judge whether the hobby is paying for itself.
When does minting make sense?
There is no general answer, because it depends on four numbers that change every day: the in-app mint cost, the GST price in your realm, the GMT price, and the floor price of the shoebox you will sell. Still, a few patterns hold.
Minting tends to make the most sense when the parents are already paid for and have low mint counts. Your first and second mints are the cheapest you will ever get from those sneakers. It also helps when the scrolls come from your own Mystery Boxes, so you are not paying extra to get them.
Minting makes less sense when you buy parents just to breed. Then the sneaker purchase is part of the cost, and seven mints may not be enough to earn it back once fees are paid. High mint counts are expensive too: the last two mints of a sneaker cost three times or more what the first did.
Finally, think about why you are minting. Some players mint to get a sneaker type they need, like a Runner to match their real pace. That is a fair reason, even if the numbers are only break-even. Others mint to sell, and they should treat it like a small trading business with a written log. If you mainly want to earn GST by moving, the GST earning calculator may tell you more about your daily returns than any mint plan. And if you are wondering whether the whole game still pays at today’s prices, we look at that honestly in is STEPN still worth it.
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A mint needs two level-5+ parents at full Durability, two matching scrolls, and a dynamic GST + GMT cost. The community base for a Common parent runs from 180 GST + 20 GMT to 630 + 70 at mint 6. Add both parents, add scrolls, then make sure your shoebox sells for at least cost ÷ 0.94 to cover the 6% marketplace fee. Always confirm the real cost in the app first.
Frequently asked questions
How much does it cost to mint in STEPN?
Cost is dynamic and set in the app. Community tables put a Common parent at about 180 GST + 20 GMT for its first two mints, rising to about 630 GST + 70 GMT at mint 6. Both parents are charged, so double that for a Common pair.
What do I need to mint a STEPN sneaker?
Two Classic sneakers at level 5 or higher with full Durability, two Minting Scrolls matching the parents' quality, and enough GST and GMT in your Spending account.
How many times can a sneaker mint?
Each sneaker can be a parent up to 7 times. The first two mints cost the same, and the cost rises with every mint after that.
Where do Minting Scrolls come from?
Minting Scrolls are one of the items that drop from Mystery Boxes. Two are needed per mint, matching the parents' quality, and both are burned when you mint.
Can you mint a Legendary sneaker?
No. Legendary sneakers cannot be minted. They come only through Enhancement, which burns five lower-quality sneakers.
Is the mint cost the same in every realm?
The GST part is paid in the GST of that realm, and sGST, bGST and pGST have very different prices. So the same mint can cost a different amount of money depending on the realm.
