Copper Price Per Pound Calculator
Estimate what your copper scrap is worth per pound based on current market rates, grade, and yard payout factors. Adjust inputs to match your haul.
Wondering how much copper is worth per pound at your local scrap yard? This calculator translates the live COMEX spot price into a realistic payout for your specific haul, accounting for copper grade, weight, and the typical yard margin. For example, if bare bright copper is trading near $4.20/lb on the spot market, a yard might pay around $3.60/lb after their 10–15% spread — meaning a 50 lb load is worth roughly $180, not $210. Plug in your numbers to see a defensible estimate before you drive to the yard.
Copper prices swing daily with global supply, Chinese manufacturing demand, and the U.S. dollar index, so a quote from last month can be off by 20%. As of mid-2026, copper has been trading in the $4.00–$4.60/lb band on spot, with #1 bare bright fetching 95–98% of spot, #2 copper tubing 85–90%, and insulated wire as low as 30–60% depending on copper recovery. This tool lets you model all three grades together — useful if your scrap pile is mixed and you want to know whether to strip wire yourself or sell it as-is.
How it works: Enter your copper weight, choose a grade (which sets a recovery factor), provide the current spot price, and select the yard's payout percentage. The calculator multiplies weight × spot × grade factor × yard percentage to estimate gross payout and shows you the per-pound effective rate.
Copper theft is a felony in all 50 states. Never sell copper from construction sites, utility lines, HVAC units, or abandoned buildings you do not own — yards photograph sellers, record ID, and report suspicious loads to local police within 24 hours under state scrap-metal laws. Cash payouts above $200 are restricted in most states; expect a 3–10 day hold and payment by check or ACH for larger loads. Loads above $10,000 trigger IRS Form 1099 reporting from the yard. Burning insulation off wire to upgrade it is illegal under EPA rules in every U.S. state and releases dioxins. Yards will refuse burnt copper or pay #2 rates regardless of appearance.
What Copper Is Really Worth Per Pound in 2026
Copper is one of the most-recycled metals in the U.S., but the gap between the headline spot price and the cash you walk out with can be 30% or more. Understanding grade, prep, and yard margin is how you avoid leaving money on the table.
Typical 2026 yard payout ranges by copper grade
| Grade | Typical $/lb (spot $4.30) | % of spot | Common sources |
|---|---|---|---|
| #1 Bare Bright | $3.55 – $3.95 | 95–98% | Stripped THHN, clean buss bar |
| #1 Copper tubing | $3.30 – $3.75 | 90–94% | Clean plumbing pipe, no solder |
| #2 Copper | $2.90 – $3.40 | 80–88% | Painted pipe, roofing, oxidized |
| Insulated THHN | $2.10 – $2.60 | 55–65% | Industrial wire, conduit pulls |
| Romex / house wire | $1.60 – $2.10 | 40–55% | Residential demo, panel pulls |
| Extension cord wire | $0.95 – $1.45 | 25–40% | Power strips, lamp cord, low-gauge |
What a load is worth at different spot prices (50 lb of #1 Bare Bright, 85% yard payout)
| Spot price | Effective $/lb | 50 lb payout | 100 lb payout |
|---|---|---|---|
| $3.50 | $2.88 | $144.00 | $288.15 |
| $4.00 | $3.30 | $164.90 | $329.80 |
| $4.30 | $3.55 | $177.30 | $354.55 |
| $4.60 | $3.79 | $189.65 | $379.30 |
| $5.00 | $4.12 | $206.15 | $412.25 |
How Much Is Copper Worth Per Pound Right Now?
As of mid-2026, copper has been trading between $4.00 and $4.60 per pound on the COMEX spot market, driven by tight supply from Chilean mines and steady EV-grid demand. But that headline number is what refineries pay for 99.99% pure cathode in 25-ton lots — not what a scrap yard pays you for a trunkload. Expect to receive roughly 60–95% of spot depending on grade and yard. A clean 30 lb load of bare bright at $4.30 spot typically pays $100–$120 cash, while the same weight of Romex pays $50–$65. Always check Kitco or the LME the morning of your trip.
Why Yards Pay Less Than the Spot Price
Scrap yards take on three costs that justify their margin: transport to a regional smelter, sorting and contamination losses, and price risk between when they buy from you and when they sell to the mill. A typical 10–20% spread covers all three. Yards in major metros (Houston, Chicago, Newark) compete hard and run 88–95% of spot. Rural yards often sit at 65–75% because they truck loads hundreds of miles. If you have over 100 lb, calling three yards and reading them the day's spot price often nets you 5–10 cents more per pound.
Understanding Copper Grades: Bare Bright vs #1 vs #2
Grades are a contamination scale. Bare Bright is uncoated, unalloyed, 16-gauge or thicker, with no solder, paint, or oxidation — yards pay near spot because it goes straight to a melt. #1 Copper allows clean tubing and heavier wire but no soldered joints; expect 90–94% of spot. #2 Copper covers painted pipe, roof flashing, and lightly oxidized stock — 80–88% of spot. Below that, anything attached to brass valves, steel fittings, or insulation is downgraded sharply. A 10-minute strip with a utility knife on a bundle of THHN can turn $2.40/lb wire into $4.00/lb bare bright.
Should You Strip Insulated Wire Yourself?
The break-even is usually around 20–30 lb of gross insulated weight. Stripping 25 lb of THHN by hand takes about 90 minutes and recovers ~17 lb of bare bright copper. At $4.30 spot and 85% payout, that is roughly $62 of bare bright versus $40 sold as insulated — a gain of $22, or about $15/hour. A bench-mounted wire stripper ($120 on Amazon) pays for itself after roughly 250 lb of insulated wire. For thin-gauge cord (lamp wire, headphones), the recovery is so low that stripping rarely pays unless you have a mechanical stripper.
How to Read the Calculator's Inputs and Outputs
Weight is your gross load weight — what the yard's floor scale reads. If you enter kilograms, the tool converts internally to pounds at 2.2046 lb/kg. The grade dropdown applies a recovery factor: #1 Bare Bright multiplies spot by 0.97, while extension cord wire applies only 0.32 to account for the heavy jacket. The yard payout percentage compounds on top — if you set 85%, you are saying the yard keeps 15% of the grade-adjusted spot value. Effective rate equals spot × grade factor × yard %. The low–high range applies an ±8% band to reflect intraday market moves between when you check the price and when you cash out.
Common Mistakes That Cost You Money
Three errors are nearly universal among first-time sellers. First, accepting the yard's quote without checking the day's spot — Kitco is free and updated every minute. Second, leaving brass fittings on copper pipe; even one brass valve on a 20 lb pipe bundle can downgrade the whole bin from #1 to #2, costing $0.40/lb. Third, mixing grades in one bin. If you dump bare bright on top of Romex, the yard weighs the whole pile at the Romex rate. Sort into separate buckets before you arrive and you can preserve $30–$50 on a typical 75 lb mixed haul.
How This Calculator Works: Methodology & Parameter Explanations
Core formula:
EffectiveRate ($/lb) = SpotPrice × GradeFactor × YardPayoutPct; Payout = WeightLb × EffectiveRatewhere:
WeightLb— Weight in pounds (canonical) (lb)SpotPrice— COMEX copper spot price ($/lb)GradeFactor— Grade recovery multiplierYardPayoutPct— Yard's share of grade-adjusted spot (%)
How to apply: The effective rate is what matters when comparing yards. A yard advertising '$4.10/lb on bare bright' when spot is $4.30 is offering you ~95% of spot — a competitive deal. Use the effective rate to evaluate quotes, then multiply by your verified scale weight for the total payout. Apply a ±8% band for intraday market drift.
Worked example: You bring 40 lb of clean #1 copper tubing to a yard. Spot is $4.20/lb. Grade factor for #1 Copper is 0.92, so grade-adjusted value is $3.86/lb. The yard pays 85%, giving an effective rate of $3.28/lb. Payout = 40 × $3.28 = $131.30. If you had stripped insulation off another 15 lb of THHN beforehand, that becomes ~10 lb of bare bright at $3.46/lb effective, adding ~$35.
Alternative formulas
Per-kilogram pricing: PayoutPerKg = SpotPrice × GradeFactor × YardPayoutPct × 2.2046
When to use: When dealing with international yards or LME-quoted prices in $/tonne; convert tonnes to lb by multiplying by 2204.6.
Mill-direct pricing: MillPayout = WeightLb × SpotPrice × 0.97 (minus freight)
When to use: For loads above 5,000 lb where you can sell directly to a regional copper mill, skipping the yard middleman.
Parameter explanations
| Input | Unit | What it means | Impact on results |
|---|---|---|---|
| Weight of copper | lb or kg | The gross weight of your scrap as it sits on the yard's floor scale. | Linear: doubling the weight doubles the payout. Loads over 100 lb often unlock a small per-pound bonus at competitive yards. |
| Weight unit | — | Whether you are entering pounds or kilograms; the tool converts to pounds internally at 2.2046 lb/kg. | No effect on the dollar payout — it only changes the displayed input scale. Useful when comparing international quotes. |
| Copper grade | — | The contamination class of your scrap, from clean Bare Bright down to thin extension-cord wire. | Major lever. Moving from Bare Bright (0.97) to extension cord (0.32) cuts your effective rate by roughly two-thirds. Stripping insulation can shift grade up by one or two tiers. |
| Current COMEX spot price | $/lb | The live market price for refined copper, quoted on the COMEX or LME and visible on Kitco. | Linear and dominant. A $0.30/lb move in spot changes your payout on a 100 lb load by ~$26 at 85% yard payout. |
| Yard payout percentage | % | The share of grade-adjusted spot the yard offers you, reflecting their margin. | Each 5-point change moves the effective rate by 5%. Calling three yards typically reveals a 10–15 point spread. |
Assumptions
The COMEX spot price you enter is current within the day; prices move 1–3% intraday.
Grade factors are typical, not contractual — The factors (0.97 for Bare Bright, 0.84 for #2, etc.) reflect 2024–2026 industry averages from yards in Texas, Ohio, and California. Individual yards may differ by ±3 percentage points based on their downstream buyer.
The headline keyword number is only an example default — Default values like 50 lb and $4.30/lb spot are illustrative. The tool works for any weight from 0.1 lb to 10,000 lb and any spot price between $0.50 and $15.
Sales tax and identification requirements are not modeled; most U.S. states require government ID for scrap sales and may delay payment 3–10 days for loads over $200.
The ±8% range reflects intraday market drift only; weekly moves can be larger during macro shocks.
How to use this calculator
- Check today's spot price — Open Kitco or COMEX on your phone the morning of your trip and note the current $/lb figure. This is your reality check against the yard's verbal quote.
- Sort and weigh at home — Separate Bare Bright, #1, #2, and insulated wire into different containers and use a bathroom scale to estimate each. Mixed bins get paid at the lowest grade in the pile.
- Enter inputs and run the estimate — Plug each grade in separately and note the effective $/lb and total payout. Use the low–high range as your negotiation band.
- Call 2–3 yards before driving — Read them the day's spot and ask for their bare-bright rate. The spread between local yards is often 10–15 cents/lb on the same grade.
- Verify the floor-scale ticket — Watch the weigh-in, confirm the grade assigned, and check the math on the printed ticket before signing or accepting payment.