Live Copper Price Today
The world’s most traded base metal
Copper is traded in USD per pound. We convert it to USD per troy ounce (÷ 14.5833) so it lines up with the rest of your holdings.
Prices are indicative spot rates for informational purposes only and may differ from dealer or exchange prices. Not investment advice.
Copper price chart
Interactive copper price history with daily open, high, low and close candlesticks. Switch between one month and five years to study copper price trends, support and resistance levels, and long-term momentum.
Copper Price Chart
Daily candles · COMEX/NYMEX futures (USD/oz)
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Pinch to zoom and drag to pan. Historical data for reference only. Futures prices may differ slightly from the physical spot price.
The live copper price is the current market rate for copper, the world’s most widely traded base metal. Copper is conventionally quoted in US dollars per pound on COMEX, and per metric tonne on the London Metal Exchange — unlike gold and silver, which are quoted per troy ounce.
Because BullionTally stores every holding in troy ounces, we convert the copper price to USD per troy ounce (dividing the per-pound price by 14.5833) so your copper bars and rounds sit alongside your precious metals on the same scale. Copper stackers collect kilo bars, 1 lb bars, copper rounds and pre-1982 US pennies, and the spot price is the reference every dealer prices from.
Converting the copper spot price to grams and kilos
Spot prices for copper are quoted per troy ounce, which is not the ounce used to weigh anything else. One troy ounce equals exactly 31.1034768 grams, against roughly 28.35 grams for a standard avoirdupois ounce. Using the wrong figure introduces an error of about ten per cent, which is more than enough to turn a fair transaction into a poor one.
To get a per-gram figure, divide the spot price per troy ounce by 31.1034768. To get a per-kilo figure, multiply the per-gram price by one thousand. The card at the top of this page does both conversions for you and refreshes as the market moves, so you can check a dealer quote in whichever unit they happen to be using.
Purity is the step people forget. Spot assumes pure metal. If a piece is 91.67 per cent fine, its metal value is the gross weight multiplied by 0.9167 and then by the per-gram price. Bullion coins stamped 999 or 999.9 can be treated as pure for practical purposes, but older circulating coinage, jewellery-grade items and some historic bars are not, and valuing them at full spot will overstate what they are worth.
Why you never pay the copper spot price
Spot is a wholesale reference for large bars settling between institutions. You are buying a small, fabricated, individually packaged product delivered to you in a quantity of one. The gap between the two is the premium, and it covers refining, minting, distribution, the cost of financing dealer inventory and the dealer's margin.
Premiums follow a predictable pattern. Large bars carry the lowest premium per unit of metal, one ounce sovereign coins sit in the middle, and fractional pieces are the most expensive per unit. Premiums also move independently of spot: in a retail buying rush, coin premiums can rise sharply while the spot price barely shifts, because mint capacity cannot expand in a matter of weeks.
When you sell, the same mechanism runs in reverse. A dealer will quote you a buy price below spot, and the spread between their buy and sell price is the real cost of a round trip. Tracking the premium you pay as a percentage on every purchase is the part of the process you can actually control, and over years of accumulation it matters more than trying to time the market.
What moves the copper price?
Global industrial demand
Copper is essential to construction, power grids, electric vehicles and electronics, so its price tracks global manufacturing and building activity closely.
The energy transition
Electrification, renewables and EV production are copper-intensive, and long-run demand forecasts are a major influence on price.
Mine supply and inventories
Strikes, ore-grade decline and exchange warehouse stock levels at COMEX, the LME and Shanghai can swing copper sharply.
Popular copper bullion products
Track your whole stack at live prices
BullionTally values your gold, silver, platinum and palladium automatically at live spot prices — privately, offline, in 153 currencies. Copper support is on the way.
Live metal prices to compare with copper
Copper price FAQ
What is the current copper price?
Copper trades around a few US dollars per pound. This page shows the live copper price converted to USD per troy ounce, per gram and per kilo, so it can be compared directly with gold, silver, platinum and palladium.
Why is copper quoted per pound instead of per troy ounce?
Copper is a base metal traded in industrial quantities, so markets quote it in US dollars per pound (COMEX) or per metric tonne (LME). Precious metals are quoted per troy ounce because they trade in much smaller, higher-value units.
How do I convert the copper price from pounds to troy ounces?
Divide the price per pound by 14.5833, because one pound contains 14.5833 troy ounces. To convert from US dollars per metric tonne instead, divide by 32,150.7.
Is copper a precious metal?
No. Copper is a base metal, not a precious metal. Many bullion collectors still stack copper rounds and bars because they are inexpensive, tangible and closely tied to industrial demand, which is why we track the copper price here.
Can I track copper in BullionTally?
Copper support is being rolled out across BullionTally. The live copper price and full historical charts are already available here on the website, and copper is coming to the app so you can record copper bars and rounds alongside your gold, silver, platinum and palladium.