Copper Price Calculator
You have a bucket of copper wire or a pile of pipe and one question: what is it worth? The honest answer has two parts, the weight, which you can measure, and the price per pound, which depends on grade and on who is buying. This calculator handles both parts without pretending to know today’s market.
Use the manual tab with a price you already have, or the auto tab to estimate from a dated spot benchmark by grade. Both tabs are pre-filled with a 25-pound example.
Weight \u00d7 price per pound, at the price you entered. Estimate only: actual payout depends on grade, your yard, and the day’s market. This is not investment advice.
Quick Answer
Key takeaways
- The manual tab is one multiplication, weight \u00d7 price per pound, and it is only as current as the price you type. It never fetches live prices.
- The auto tab prices from a fixed $6.60/lb spot benchmark using grade ratios: Bare Bright 87.5% of spot, #1 at 95% of that, #2 at 85%, insulated wire at about 50%.
- Yards pay under spot on purpose: sorting, transport, refining, and margin come out of your payout. Expect roughly 70% to 90% of spot depending on grade.
- Sorting a mixed load into grades before you go is the easiest money in scrapping: mixed loads get paid at the lowest grade in the pile.
- Quick Answer
- Two tabs, two different questions
- The copper price formula
- The grade table behind the auto estimate
- Worked example: one load, priced both ways
- Should you strip insulated wire before selling?
- What competing calculators miss
- Frequently Asked Questions
- Add This Calculator to Your Website
- References
Two tabs, two different questions
The manual tab answers: what is my copper worth at a price I already have? That is the yard quote scenario. A yard gives you a per-pound figure for your grade, you weigh the load, and this tab does the multiplication with no opinions attached. It is also the right tab for valuing refined copper or inventory, where the CME copper futures contract price is the number you would type.
The auto tab answers the earlier question: roughly what should this grade be worth, before you have a quote? It derives a per-pound price from a fixed spot benchmark and a payout ratio per grade, prints the exact per-pound price it used on the result, and labels itself an estimate in the same breath. Use it to sanity-check a quote that feels low, not to argue with the scale house. When you finish with copper, the same weight-times-price discipline prices other metals: the bronze value calculator covers the copper alloy most often confused with it.
The copper price formula
Both tabs are the same multiplication. They differ only in where the price per pound comes from.
Spot itself is set on exchanges, mainly the COMEX division of CME in the US and the London Metal Exchange internationally, for refined copper deliverable to a warehouse. Scrap never trades at spot, because scrap is not yet refined copper: it is feedstock with a processing bill attached. The USGS copper statistics track the production and price history behind those benchmarks if you want the long view.
The grade table behind the auto estimate
These are the exact ratios coded into the auto tab, with the 25-pound worked example priced for each grade.
| Grade | What it means | Ratio logic | 25 lbs estimates at |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bare Bright | Clean, uncoated, unalloyed wire or bus bar | 87.5% of spot: $5.775/lb | $144.38 |
| #1 Copper | Clean pipe, tube, bus bar; light oxidation OK | 95% of Bare Bright price | $137.16 |
| #2 Copper | Paint, solder, brazing, heavy oxidation | 85% of Bare Bright price | $122.72 |
| Insulated wire | Wire sold as-is, paid on copper recovery | About 50% of Bare Bright price | $72.19 |
Grade definitions follow the scrap industry's specification tradition, where Bare Bright is the premium grade and everything else is priced down from it for the processing it needs. Notice what the table rewards: the same 25 pounds swings by $72 between the top grade and insulated wire. Cleaning, sorting, and (for heavy cable) stripping move you up that table, which is why the estimate for your actual grade, not the best grade, is the honest number to plan around.
Worked example: one load, priced both ways
The calculator is pre-filled with 25 pounds on both tabs. On the manual tab, a yard quote of $4.10 a pound for #2 copper gives 25 \u00d7 $4.10 = $102.50. Run the auto tab on #2 instead and the estimate is $122.72, priced at $4.909 a pound from the benchmark. Neither number is wrong; they are measuring different things. The manual figure is a real quote for a real day. The auto figure is what the ratio model says #2 should fetch against a $6.60 spot, before the yard's own costs and margin come out.
If the two tabs ever agree exactly, that is coincidence, not confirmation. If a yard quote lands far under the auto estimate for the same grade, that is a reason to phone a second yard, which is the genuinely useful thing an estimate can do.
Should you strip insulated wire before selling?
Stripping moves wire from the insulated row of the grade table toward the Bare Bright row, but it costs time and loses the insulation weight you were being paid (a reduced rate) on.
Stripping usually pays when
- The cable is thick: high copper recovery and fast to strip
- You have a bench stripper and a large batch to run
- The price gap between grades is wide that week
Stripping usually does not pay when
- The wire is thin household gauge: slow work, low recovery
- The batch is small, so setup time eats the gain
- You value your hours anywhere near a wage
Price both versions in the auto tab before you start: estimate the stripped weight at the Bare Bright ratio and the as-is weight at the insulated ratio, and let the difference decide. Never burn insulation off: it is illegal in many places, wrecks your lungs, and yards downgrade burned wire on sight.
What competing calculators miss
Most copper tools online are live-price widgets: they fetch a spot price and multiply it by your weight, which produces a number that looks precise and is quietly wrong for scrap, because no yard pays spot for scrap. Others are bare two-field multipliers with no grade concept at all.
Miss 1: spot presented as your payout. This page separates the two ideas into two tabs and labels the benchmark estimate as an estimate on the result itself, with the per-pound price shown so you can see exactly what was assumed.
Miss 2: no grades. A single price field assumes all copper is equal. The grade table and ratios here price the difference between Bare Bright and #2 at $21.66 on a 25-pound load, which is the difference that decides whether a trip to the yard is worth it.
Miss 3: stale live prices with no date. A fetched price with no timestamp is worse than a fixed benchmark with one. The benchmark here is dated October 2026 in the open, so you know exactly when to stop trusting it and switch to the manual tab.
One honest limit: neither tab knows your yard, your region, or today. Regional yard boards vary, and large clean loads sometimes negotiate better than the posted grade price. The calculator frames the negotiation; it does not finish it.
Frequently Asked Questions
No. The manual tab multiplies the weight you enter by the price per pound you enter, and the auto tab uses a fixed $6.60 per pound COMEX spot benchmark from October 2026 that is printed on the result. Neither tab fetches live prices. Check the CME copper contract or ask your yard for today's number, then use the manual tab for a current valuation.
It depends on grade and the day's market. As a rough frame, scrap yards typically pay 70% to 90% of the COMEX spot price: Bare Bright near the top of that range, #2 near the bottom. At the $6.60 benchmark that frames typical yard prices roughly between $4.60 and $5.90 per pound, but your yard board is the only price that pays.
#1 is clean pipe, tube, or bus bar with no paint or solder; light oxidation is fine. #2 has paint, solder, brazing, or heavy oxidation that needs processing before refining. The gap is typically 10% to 15% per pound, which is why mixed loads get paid at the #2 rate and sorting before you go is worth money.
Multiply kilograms by 2.20462. Ten kilograms of copper is 22.05 pounds. This calculator takes pounds only, so convert first if your scale reads in kilograms.
Spot is the price of refined copper deliverable on an exchange. A yard buys scrap, then covers sorting, transport, refining, and its own margin before it can sell at anything near spot. The grade table on this page shows the normal discount each grade carries.
Sometimes. Insulated wire pays on copper recovery, often around half the bare-bright price in this tool's ratios, and yards quote 50% to 75% of the bare price depending on gauge. Thick cable repays the stripping time; thin wire usually does not once you value your own hours.
It multiplies your weight by a per-pound price derived from the fixed $6.60 per pound spot benchmark: Bare Bright takes 87.5% of spot ($5.775 a pound), #1 takes 95% of the bare-bright price, #2 takes 85%, and insulated wire about 50%. The result line shows the exact per-pound price it used, so 25 pounds of Bare Bright estimates at $144.38.
Because yards pay less than any spot-derived estimate: they cover sorting, transport, refining, and margin, and prices move daily. The fixed benchmark also goes stale as the market moves. Use the estimate to sanity-check a quote, and use the manual tab with the yard actual price when you need the real number.
Add This Calculator to Your Website
References
- CME Group, "Copper Futures", the COMEX contract specification and price source behind the US copper spot benchmark. CME Group: Copper futures. Accessed October 2026.
- London Metal Exchange, "LME Copper", the international benchmark contract for refined copper. London Metal Exchange: LME Copper. Accessed October 2026.
- US Geological Survey, "Copper Statistics and Information", production, price, and recycling data for copper in the United States. USGS: Copper Statistics and Information. Accessed October 2026.
- Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries, "Scrap Specifications Circular", the grade definitions (Bare Bright, #1, #2) that scrap pricing follows. ISRI: Scrap Specifications Circular. Accessed October 2026.
- US Geological Survey, "Mineral Commodity Summaries: Copper", the annual summary of copper prices and trade. USGS: Mineral Commodity Summaries. Accessed October 2026.