Wire Weight and Cost Calculator
Choose the wire size and metal, enter the run length and number of conductors, then a price you were quoted.
Total conductor weight
23.57 lb
Total conductor weight
10.69 kg
Cost at your price
$106.07
Weight of one conductor
7.86 lb
Weight per 1,000 ft of one conductor
31.43 lb
Weight per kilometre of one conductor
46.77 kg
Total conductor length
750 ft
How it works
A conductor's weight is its metal volume times the metal's density. The volume is the cross-section, taken from the American Wire Gage definition or the kcmil size, times the length.
Copper uses the international standard density of 8.89 g/cm³ at 20 °C from NBS Handbook 100; aluminum uses 2.703 g/cm³ from NBS Handbook 109, Table 1. A concentric-stranded conductor's strands are longer than the cable because they are twisted, so stranded conductors are taken as 2 % heavier than a solid rod of the same cross-section, the allowance Handbook 100 applies to both resistance and mass.
The run's total is one conductor's weight times the number of conductors. The cost multiplies your price by the total weight (per pound or kilogram) or the total conductor length (per foot or metre).
Formula
A (in²) = cmil × π/4 × 10⁻⁶ weight per conductor = density × A × L × k (k = 1.02 stranded, 1 solid) copper: lb per 1,000 ft = 0.0030270 × cmil (solid); aluminum = 0.30405 × copper total weight = weight per conductor × conductors cost = price × total weight or price × L × conductors
Example
Three solid 10 AWG copper conductors, 250 ft long: 10 AWG is 10,383 cmil, so one conductor weighs 0.0030270 × 10,383 = 31.43 lb per 1,000 ft (Handbook 100, Table 5, lists 31.43). 250 ft is 7.86 lb, the run is 23.57 lb (10.69 kg), and at an illustrative $4.50 per pound it costs $106.07.
Assumptions and limitations
- Bare conductor metal only. Insulation, jackets, fillers, armor, the reel and packaging add weight that is not included; a cable's shipping weight is on its manufacturer's data sheet.
- Nominal cross-sections from the AWG definition and kcmil sizes; real conductors are made to tolerances, so actual weights vary slightly. Stranded conductors are taken as 2 % heavier than solid, the NBS Handbook 100 allowance for sizes up to 2,000,000 cmil.
- Densities are the published standard values at 20 °C: 8.89 g/cm³ for annealed copper (NBS Handbook 100, 1966) and 2.703 g/cm³ for aluminum conductor alloys (NBS Handbook 109, 1972, Table 1).
- The price is a value you enter; the default is an illustrative placeholder, not a current market or scrap price. Scrap buyers pay different rates for bare, insulated and mixed wire.
- A weight or cost estimate only; it does not address whether a wire size suits a circuit, which the adopted electrical code and a licensed electrician determine.
Frequently asked questions
How much does 1,000 feet of 12 AWG copper wire weigh?
The bare copper in one solid 12 AWG conductor 1,000 ft long weighs about 19.8 lb (NBS Handbook 100, Table 5); stranded is about 2 % more. Insulated building wire weighs more because of its insulation.
Why is aluminum wire so much lighter than copper?
Aluminum's density, 2.703 g/cm³, is about 30 % of copper's 8.89 g/cm³, so the same size weighs about 30 % as much. Aluminum also conducts less well, so an aluminum conductor of the same resistance is larger but still roughly half the weight.
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