If you came here looking for the copper price in a rush, the live ticker and 30-day chart at the top of this page have you covered — that's the COMEX spot, scrap-discounted to roughly what a US yard would actually pay you. Everything below is for when you have ten more minutes and you want to know why the number is what it is, and what your bucket of pipe and wire is really worth before you drive to the scale.
This page is written for scrap sellers, not traders. You're not here to short the futures market — you're here because the panel you ripped out, the wire spool from a job site, or the half-bin of pipe in the garage might be worth real money, and you want to walk into a yard knowing what fair looks like.
Today's copper price at a glance
The ticker above shows the current per-pound price. If it reads roughly $4.20/lb, your bare-bright copper — clean, stripped, shiny like a new penny — is probably fetching $3.60 to $3.90 per pound at a typical US yard. If it reads closer to $5.50, you're closer to $4.80–$5.00 cash in hand.
The gap between what the screen says and what the yard pays is not a typo. It's the entire reason this page exists. Most of the daily copper price snapshots you'll find online quote you a wholesale exchange number — useful as a benchmark, useless as a quote for your driveway pile.
Spot price vs. scrap price — the discount that matters
Spot price is the wholesale benchmark. It's set by COMEX (the Chicago futures exchange where copper's headline price is established) and LME (the London Metal Exchange — the global reference for non-ferrous metals). When a financial-news site says "copper is up 3%," they mean COMEX continuous front-month copper is up 3%.
Yard price is what you actually pocket. To get from one to the other, the yard applies a stack of small discounts:
- Yard margin — the cut that pays for labor, transport to a smelter, and inventory risk between your visit and their next outbound shipment.
- Grade discount — copper isn't one thing. Bare bright wire pays differently from #2 copper or insulated cable. See the next section.
- Moisture and contamination deductions — wet loads and dirty material lose a few percent.
- Volume tier — a 1,000-lb load gets a friendlier rate than a 20-lb bag.
Stack those together and the typical bare-bright load lands at 85–92% of spot. There's nothing nefarious about it; it's just the scrap-discount math at the yard that pays for the supply chain. A worked example helps:
| Scenario | Spot ($/lb) | Yard payout factor | Per-lb to seller | 50-lb load |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bare bright copper | $4.20 | 0.88–0.92× | $3.70–$3.86 | $185–$193 |
| #1 copper | $4.20 | 0.82–0.88× | $3.44–$3.70 | $172–$185 |
| #2 copper | $4.20 | 0.72–0.80× | $3.02–$3.36 | $151–$168 |
| Insulated wire (heavy gauge) | $4.20 | 0.30–0.50× | $1.26–$2.10 | $63–$105 |
Numbers above are typical industry ranges; your local market may run tighter or looser. A coastal high-volume metro yard will pay closer to the top of the range than a single-yard rural market. For the deeper grade-by-grade breakdown — and what actually disqualifies a piece from a higher tier — keep reading, or jump to scrap copper prices in detail.
Copper grade ladder and payout ratios
Almost every US yard quotes the same five-or-six tiers, and the difference between adjacent tiers is real money. Sorting before you drive is the highest-paying minute of work in scrap.
| Grade | What it is | How to identify | Typical payout (% of spot) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bare bright | Stripped, uncoated copper wire 16-gauge or thicker | Bright copper color, no oxidation, no solder | 88–92% |
| #1 copper | Clean unalloyed pipe, bus bar, clean clippings — no fittings | Copper color, light tarnish OK; no paint, solder, or attachments | 82–88% |
| #2 copper | Copper with light solder, paint, or tarnish; mixed pipe with brass fittings | Browner tone, surface contaminants visible | 72–80% |
| Light copper / sheet | Thin copper sheet, gutters, flashings, roofing | Flat or rolled, often heavily tarnished | 60–72% |
| #1 ICW (insulated copper wire) | Heavy-gauge insulated wire (Romex, THHN) ≥75% recoverable copper | Plastic-jacketed, thick gauge | 40–55% |
| #2 ICW | Thinner insulated wire, extension cords, lamp cord | Plastic-jacketed, thin gauge | 25–40% |
| Christmas-light / low-grade | Very thin braided copper, often steel-reinforced | Thin braid, low recoverable yield | 10–20% |
The single biggest lever a scrapper has is the bare-bright vs. #1 vs. #2 vs. ICW decision. Stripping insulation off ICW to reclassify it as bare bright can roughly double the payout per pound — but only if your stripper is fast enough that the extra time pays. The bare-bright copper and wire grading guide walks through the math and the threshold where stripping stops being worth the effort. For a per-pound focus rather than a grade focus, see price of copper per pound by grade.
What moves copper prices
You don't need to read the futures market to scrap copper, but understanding the macro forces helps you make sense of the chart at the top of this page and decide whether your pile is appreciating fast enough to wait or stable enough to unload now. Four drivers do most of the work:
- China demand sets the floor. China consumes roughly half the world's refined copper, and the building / construction / power-grid mix that drives that demand is the single biggest swing factor month-to-month. Watch their property-sector signals and stimulus announcements — both move copper.
- Datacenter buildout is the new structural buyer. Hyperscaler datacenter construction has materially shifted copper demand projections in the last few years. Power infrastructure for AI training facilities consumes copper at orders of magnitude beyond traditional commercial construction. The International Copper Study Group tracks supply-and-demand balances and is a good external reference if you want the institutional view.
- Chilean and Peruvian supply is the persistent risk on the other side. The two countries together produce roughly 35–40% of global mined copper, and labor disputes, water-rights disputes, or sulphuric-acid supply (used in copper refining) routinely interrupt output. The USGS copper statistics page publishes the per-country production numbers if you want to verify.
- The US dollar matters because copper is priced in dollars. A weaker dollar tends to lift commodity prices broadly; a stronger dollar tends to compress them. For deeper coverage of the macro drivers and the futures-market mechanics, see our copper market trade and pricing context page.
When you see copper rip 10% in a month — that's why your yard's posted price moved. When it goes flat for six weeks, that's also why.
How to read a yard's copper price sheet
Most US scrap yards post their per-pound prices on a chalkboard or LCD inside the office, updated daily or twice daily. A typical board reads:
Bare Bright $3.85 / lb #1 Copper $3.65 / lb #2 Copper $3.10 / lb Insulated $1.45 / lb
Three things first-time sellers miss when they read these boards:
- Most US yards quote per pound, but some still quote per hundredweight (cwt = 100 lb). A "$385 cwt" board is the same number as a "$3.85/lb" board, but the math is different in your head and easy to misread under fluorescent lights. If the units aren't obvious, ask before you commit to dropping off.
- "Delivered" and "picked up" are different prices. A yard offering pickup will pay less per pound than they will to a seller who drove the load in — they're absorbing the truck and labor cost. If you're weighing whether to call for a scrap metal pickup, get both quotes before you commit.
- Posted prices are the ceiling, not the floor. What you actually get paid depends on the grader's call on inspection. A seller who shows up with bare bright that turns out to be slightly tarnished can get bumped down to #1 — and that 5–8 percentage-point drop is real money. Sort cleanly, ask if you're not sure, and don't argue with the grader; they've graded ten thousand more buckets than you have.
For the broader pricing context — how scrap-metal pricing in general moves, beyond just copper — our scrap metal prices reference page has the comparable view across grades. To find a yard near you to compare boards, start with our scrap-yards directory — calling two or three before driving is almost always worth it.
Selling copper scrap: prep, weigh-in, and getting paid right
A short checklist that captures what experienced scrappers do without thinking:
- Pre-sort by grade before you drive. Bare bright in one bucket, #1 in another, #2 in a third, ICW separate. The yard isn't going to argue if you tell them which grade each bucket is — they're going to verify. But if you show up with everything mixed in one barrel, the entire load defaults to the lowest grade present. That's a 20–40% haircut.
- Strip insulation only when the math works. Reclassifying ICW (40–55% of spot) up to #1 (82–88%) is a roughly 2× payout — but only on the recovered copper weight, which for thin-gauge wire is maybe 60–70% of the original ICW pound. If your stripper is slow, the time isn't worth it. See copper scrap preparation guidance for the breakeven math.
- Bring photo ID. Most US states require yards to record the seller's ID for transactions over a threshold (varies by state, often $25 or $50 — yes, that low). It's not a hassle; it's the law.
- Expect a check, not cash, over a threshold. Many yards cap cash payouts at $100–$500 per visit, with anything over that cut as a check or ACH. If you need cash same-day for a larger load, call ahead.
- Watch the scale. Reputable yards welcome the question. Truck scales weigh whole vehicles before/after; floor scales weigh individual loads. For a 30-lb bucket of bare bright, a half-pound miscalibration matters; for a half-ton on a truck scale, it doesn't. Ask which scale is being used and confirm the gross/tare numbers if it's a truck scale.
For seller-side pricing literacy — the rest of the cash-and-tax considerations — our scrap pricing literacy guide covers what reputable yards expect from a first-time seller. If you're selling enough volume that you're considering a formal buyer relationship, our OmniSource buyer profile is a representative profile of one of the larger US-based industrial buyers; the same patterns apply at most major chains and many independents.
Per-unit conversions — pound, ounce, gram, kilo, ton
US scrap is almost universally priced per pound. International readers and anyone coming from a precious-metals background will want the conversions, though, so:
| Unit | Conversion to pound | At a $4.20/lb spot reference |
|---|---|---|
| 1 pound (lb) | 1.000 lb | $4.20 |
| 1 ounce (avoirdupois, oz) | 0.0625 lb | $0.26 |
| 1 gram (g) | 0.0022 lb | $0.0093 |
| 1 kilogram (kg) | 2.2046 lb | $9.26 |
| 1 short ton (US, 2,000 lb) | 2,000 lb | $8,400 |
| 1 metric tonne (1,000 kg) | 2,204.6 lb | $9,259 |
Substitute the live ticker number above for the example $4.20 to get current values. For the answer-page version of how much is copper per pound today, we maintain a daily-updated leaf that focuses on the per-pound number alone with current cash-payout context.
Frequently asked questions
How much is a pound of copper worth right now?
Check the live ticker at the top of this page for spot. To translate to scrap: typical bare-bright copper pays roughly 85–92% of spot at a US yard. So a $4.20 spot reads as roughly $3.60–$3.90 in cash per pound. Lower grades drop from there — see the grade ladder above. Regional and grade-specific variance is real; the only number that matters for your transaction is what your local yard quotes today.
What is the current price of 1 oz of copper?
Divide the per-pound price by 16. Copper is priced per avoirdupois pound in the US scrap world — not troy ounces. At a $4.20/lb spot, that's roughly $0.26/oz. Note that scrap yards almost never quote per ounce; if you're asking this question, you're probably either confusing copper with a precious metal (which is quoted per troy ounce) or measuring something tiny.
Why is the yard's price lower than the spot price I see online?
The yard takes a margin to cover labor, transport to a smelter, and inventory risk between your visit and their next outbound shipment. Add grade discounts and any moisture or contamination deductions on top. The 8–15% gap between exchange spot and your payout isn't anyone cheating you — it's how the scrap supply chain actually pays for itself. The grade discount (bare bright vs. #1 vs. #2 vs. ICW) is usually a much larger factor than yard margin alone.
Is now a good time to sell copper scrap?
Look at the 30-day chart at the top of this page. If copper is up 8% or more over the past month, the macro tape is favorable — and if you've been sitting on a pile, that pile just appreciated meaningfully. Consider unloading. If the chart is flat or down, holding rarely costs much (copper doesn't spoil), but the floor space might be more valuable than the optionality. Don't try to time the bottom; aim for "good enough" and don't second-guess.
How do I avoid getting shorted on weight at the yard?
Weigh your loads at home with a bathroom or hanging scale before you leave. You don't need the yard's precision — just a sanity check within a few pounds. If you're using a truck scale at the yard, drive on with a full fuel tank and leave full (or empty and leave empty, consistently). Ask which scale is being used, especially for loads under 100 lb where rounding matters. Reputable yards welcome the question and the verification.
Related copper and metal pricing pages
For a daily-updated snapshot, the copper prices today leaf is the same data with less context — useful when you just need the number. The scrap copper prices page goes deeper on grade-level pricing. If you're shopping multiple metals, our other pricing pillars cover aluminum prices, brass prices, stainless steel prices, and the precious metals via live gold pricing and silver pricing. For local-market context, scrap metal prices near you helps you sanity-check what your regional yards are quoting.
Live exchange data on the page above is sourced from Metals.dev (or Yahoo Finance as a fallback). The COMEX HG=F continuous contract is the US scrap industry's reference; for the official global benchmark, the LME copper page publishes daily official prices and stock levels.