Growth vs fear · live ratio
Gold to Copper Ratio
The gold to copper ratio is 676.5 — gold at $4,296.02 per troy ounce divided by copper at $6.35 per pound. One ounce of gold buys about 676.5 pounds of copper.
Most macro commentary quotes this pair the other way round, as copper over gold, because that orientation rises with growth and reads more intuitively. The inverse is 0.001478, and the calculator prints both.
Prices as of Sep 14, 2026, 11:04 AM UTC. Change either side of the calculator to price any other pair, or read the unit reference for how cross-unit ratios should be read.
Gold to Copper Futures ratio
1.000 T.oz of gold = 676.539 Lb of copper futures
Inverse (HG-FUT/XAU): 0.001478 — one Pound of copper futures buys that much gold.
Below its 1 year average. (25th percentile of the last 1 year)
Gold
$4,296.02
per Troy Ounce
Copper Futures
$6.35
per Pound
Unit basis: USD per Troy Ounce ÷ USD per Pound. The ratio reads as Pounds of copper futures per Troy Ounce of gold. Prices as of Mon, 14 Sep 2026 11:04:14 GMT.
Prices on this page are delayed by up to 15 minutes. For real-time rates, use the CommodityPriceAPI.
1Y average
764.7
median 785.5
1Y low
613.2
Aug 4, 2026
1Y high
947.7
Jan 29, 2026
Normal band
687.2–842.3
mean ± 1 std dev
Deviation from mean
-1.14σ
170 observations
Gold to Copper Futures ratio charts
Pick a range once — it applies to the XAU/HG-FUT ratio line, the OHLC candles and the Gold / Copper Futures price chart below.
XAU/HG-FUT ratio line
How many Lb of Copper Futures one T.oz of Gold buys, over 1Y.
XAU/HG-FUT ratio candles
Open, high, low and close of the XAU/HG-FUT ratio for each period in the last 1Y.
Gold and Copper Futures prices
Both legs of the ratio on their own axes, so you can see which one moved over 1Y.
How to calculate the gold to copper ratio
Gold to copper ratio = gold price per troy oz ÷ copper price per pound
Gold is quoted per troy ounce and copper per pound — different weight units entirely, and not even the same system. The quotient is pounds of copper per troy ounce of gold, a purchasing-power rate rather than a count.
Worked example, live prices: $4,296.02 ÷ $6.35 = 676.5. The inverse is 0.001478.
Why this pair tracks bond yields
Copper has essentially no monetary role and enormous industrial exposure — construction, grid, motors, and increasingly EVs and data-centre power. Gold is the reverse. Putting them in a ratio produces something close to a pure growth-versus-fear reading, and it has tracked the US 10-year Treasury yield closely enough that a number of macro desks watch the copper/gold line as a leading indicator for where long yields want to go.
The logic is that both the ratio and the long bond are pricing the same thing: expected real growth. When copper outperforms gold, the market is pricing expansion, and yields tend to follow. When gold outperforms, it is pricing risk aversion, and yields tend to fall.
Reading the number correctly
The unit mismatch is where most misreadings start. Because a troy ounce of gold costs thousands of dollars and a pound of copper costs a few, gold-over-copper produces a large number and copper-over-gold produces a very small decimal. Neither is more correct — but comparing a figure quoted one way against a chart drawn the other way is a common error.
Over the trailing 1 year the ratio has averaged 765.2, ranging from 613.2 to 947.7, and today's 676.5 sits at the 24th percentile. Chinese property and grid spending drive a large share of copper demand, so this ratio often reacts to Chinese policy announcements before it reacts to anything happening in the gold market.
Other commodity ratios
Each of these has its own page with live pricing, a full year of history and the range statistics.
- Gold to silver ratio
- Gold to platinum ratioPrecious metals · live ratio
- Gold to oil ratioMacro ratio · live
- Gold to palladium ratioPrecious metals · live ratio
- Silver to platinum ratioIndustrial precious metals · live
- Copper to silver ratioElectrification metals · live
- Oil to natural gas ratioEnergy substitution · live
- Platinum to palladium ratioPGM substitution · live
- Gold to natural gas ratioMonetary vs energy · live ratio
Live prices behind the ratios
| # | Symbol | Name | Rate (USD) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | XAU | Gold | 4286.40 |
| 2 | XAG | Silver | 62.66 |
| 3 | WTIOIL-FUT | Crude Oil WTI Futures | 102.67 |
| 4 | BRENTOIL-FUT | Crude Oil Brent Futures | 107.29 |
| 5 | NG-FUT | Natural Gas Futures | 2.89 |
| 6 | PL | Platinum | 1768.45 |
| 7 | PA | Palladium | 1276.80 |
Frequently asked questions
What is the gold to copper ratio today?
The gold to copper ratio is 676.5, meaning one troy ounce of gold buys about 676.5 pounds of copper. That is $4,296.02 per troy ounce of gold divided by $6.35 per pound of copper.
Is it the copper/gold ratio or the gold/copper ratio?
Both are used, and they are reciprocals. Macro analysts usually quote copper over gold, because that version rises with growth expectations and tracks the 10-year Treasury yield. Gold over copper is the same information inverted. This page shows 676.5 with the inverse 0.001478 alongside it.
Why is the copper to gold ratio such a small number?
Because of the unit basis, not because copper is insignificant. Copper is priced per pound in single dollars while gold is priced per troy ounce in thousands, so dividing copper by gold necessarily yields a small decimal. The ratio's direction and range matter, not its absolute size.
Does this use copper futures or spot?
COMEX copper futures (HG), quoted in US dollars per pound. LME copper is quoted per metric tonne, which produces a numerically very different ratio for the same underlying relationship — worth checking before comparing against another source.