# What is the most expensive element?

> Rhodium is the most expensive element you can buy, at about $289 per gram in October 2026. Berkelium-249 and californium-252 carry far higher prices, about $186 million and $60 million per gram. See the full ranking of element prices.

Rhodium is the most expensive element you can buy on an open market. On October 6, 2026, Johnson Matthey priced it at \$9,000 per troy ounce, about **\$289 per gram**, ahead of iridium at \$264 per gram and gold at \$133. Elements made in nuclear reactors cost far more. The last public price list from Oak Ridge National Laboratory, issued in 2000, charged \$185.65 per microgram for berkelium-249, about \$186 million per gram (roughly \$361 million in today's dollars), and \$60 per microgram for californium-252. Francium and astatine, often named the most expensive elements of all, have no price, because nobody has ever made enough of either to weigh.

These answers do not conflict; they measure different things. A market price records what buyers pay for a metal that is mined, refined and traded by the kilogram. A laboratory price reflects the cost of making a few milligrams of an isotope in one of a handful of facilities worldwide. The figure most often quoted for californium, \$27 million per gram, is the US government's price from 1987, and the synthetic elements are now sold only by private quotation. Ranking the elements by their published price per gram shows why the reactor-made elements sit at the top and why the metals ordinary buyers can trade follow far behind.

## Which element is the most expensive?

Berkelium is the most expensive element with a published price, about \$186 million per gram. On the price list that Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) published for the US Department of Energy (DOE) in June 2000, berkelium-249 cost \$185.65 per microgram, a millionth of a gram. Curium-248 and californium-249 carried the same price per microgram, but both elements were also sold in cheaper forms. Californium-252, the isotope usually named in answers to this question, cost \$60 per microgram, or \$60 million per gram.

The number after each name identifies an isotope, a version of an element with a particular number of neutrons in its nucleus. Most elements have stable isotopes and are mined from ore. Berkelium and californium have none: practically all of both has been made in nuclear reactors, and each isotope is sold separately because its uses depend on how it decays.

Figure 1 and Table 1 rank the 12 elements with the highest published price per gram. Each element appears at the price of its cheapest available form, so californium is listed at the price of californium-252, and curium at that of curium-244, which DOE sold by the milligram rather than the microgram. The synthetic elements carry DOE's 2000 prices, the most recent ones made public, while the traded metals carry market prices from October 2026. Cesium is the only entry priced by the laboratory ampoule, because cesium metal is not traded in commercial quantities and has no market price. Uranium and thorium also appeared on the DOE list as separated isotopes, but both are mined in bulk at prices far too low to make the ranking.

![Horizontal bar chart of price per gram on a logarithmic axis: berkelium about 186 million dollars, californium 60 million, curium 186 thousand, plutonium 4,800, americium 750, rhodium 289, iridium 264, gold 133, cesium 104, technetium 84, ruthenium and platinum 56.](/images/charts/most-expensive-elements-price-per-gram.webp '**Figure 1. Price per gram of the most expensive elements.** The axis is logarithmic, so each gridline marks a tenfold increase. Synthetic elements are shown at DOE list prices from June 2000, metals at October 2026 market prices, and cesium at its 2025 ampoule price; Table 1 gives the forms and dates. Sources: [ORNL (2000)](http://web.archive.org/web/20000818084922/http://www.ornl.gov:80/isotopes/p_r_list.html), [Johnson Matthey (2026)](https://matthey.com/products-and-markets/pgms-and-circularity/pgm-management), [World Gold Council (2026)](https://www.gold.org/goldhub/data/gold-prices), [USGS (2026)](https://pubs.usgs.gov/periodicals/mcs2026/mcs2026-cesium.pdf).')

  <caption><strong>Table 1. The most expensive elements by published price per gram.</strong> Each element is ranked at its cheapest form with a published price. Synthetic elements are priced from the last public DOE list (June 2000), not adjusted for inflation; metals are October 2026 market prices converted at 31.1035 grams per troy ounce; cesium is a 2025 price for a 1-gram ampoule of 99.8% metal. Francium, astatine and other elements without a per-gram price are excluded. Sources: ORNL (2000), Johnson Matthey (2026), World Gold Council (2026), USGS (2026).</caption>
  <thead>
    <tr>
      <th scope="col">Rank</th>
      <th scope="col">Element</th>
      <th scope="col">Form priced</th>
      <th scope="col">Published price</th>
      <th scope="col">Price per gram</th>
      <th scope="col">Price date</th>
    </tr>
  </thead>
  <tbody>
    <tr>
      <td>1</td>
      <td>Berkelium</td>
      <td>Berkelium-249</td>
      <td>\$185.65 per microgram</td>
      <td>\$186 million</td>
      <td>2000</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>2</td>
      <td>Californium</td>
      <td>Californium-252</td>
      <td>\$60 per microgram</td>
      <td>\$60 million</td>
      <td>2000</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>3</td>
      <td>Curium</td>
      <td>Curium-244</td>
      <td>\$185.65 per milligram</td>
      <td>\$185,650</td>
      <td>2000</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>4</td>
      <td>Plutonium</td>
      <td>Plutonium-239, over 99.99% pure</td>
      <td>\$4.80 per milligram</td>
      <td>\$4,800</td>
      <td>2000</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>5</td>
      <td>Americium</td>
      <td>Americium-241</td>
      <td>\$750 per gram</td>
      <td>\$750</td>
      <td>2000</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>6</td>
      <td>Rhodium</td>
      <td>Metal</td>
      <td>\$9,000 per troy ounce</td>
      <td>\$289</td>
      <td>October 6, 2026</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>7</td>
      <td>Iridium</td>
      <td>Metal</td>
      <td>\$8,200 per troy ounce</td>
      <td>\$264</td>
      <td>October 6, 2026</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>8</td>
      <td>Gold</td>
      <td>Metal</td>
      <td>\$4,141.65 per troy ounce</td>
      <td>\$133</td>
      <td>October 5, 2026</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>9</td>
      <td>Cesium</td>
      <td>Metal, 1-gram ampoule</td>
      <td>\$104 per gram</td>
      <td>\$104</td>
      <td>2025</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>10</td>
      <td>Technetium</td>
      <td>Technetium-99</td>
      <td>\$83.85 per gram</td>
      <td>\$84</td>
      <td>2000</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>11</td>
      <td>Ruthenium</td>
      <td>Metal</td>
      <td>\$1,750 per troy ounce</td>
      <td>\$56</td>
      <td>October 6, 2026</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>12</td>
      <td>Platinum</td>
      <td>Metal</td>
      <td>\$1,730 per troy ounce</td>
      <td>\$56</td>
      <td>October 6, 2026</td>
    </tr>
  </tbody>

The gap between the top two rows and the rest is hard to picture. Even without adjusting for inflation, a gram of berkelium-249 at the 2000 price would cost more than a million times as much as a gram of gold today, and more than 40 times the \$4.25 million list price of Lenmeldy, the [most expensive drug in the world](/guides/most-expensive-drugs).

Adjusted for inflation, those prices would be roughly twice as high today. Using the US consumer price index, we estimate that the June 2000 prices equal about \$361 million per gram for berkelium-249 and \$117 million per gram for californium-252 in August 2026 dollars. On the same basis, technetium-99 would cost about \$163 per gram and rank above gold and cesium; Table 1 keeps the prices as they were published.

## Why do berkelium and californium cost so much?

The heaviest elements are expensive because almost nobody can make them, and each production run takes years to deliver milligrams. At ORNL, plutonium, americium and curium are made into targets and irradiated in the High Flux Isotope Reactor, where their nuclei capture neutron after neutron until they become berkelium, californium and still heavier elements. The targets then go to ORNL's Radiochemical Engineering Development Center, where the products are chemically separated and purified. From 1966 to May 2019, 78 such campaigns yielded a combined 10.2 grams of californium-252 and 1.2 grams of berkelium-249, with each campaign recovering between 70 and 500 milligrams of californium-252. ORNL now makes californium-252 about every two years and describes itself as the only producer in the western world. In 2009 the only other producer was the Research Institute of Atomic Reactors in Dimitrovgrad, Russia.

The price of californium-252 has risen as production became harder to sustain. Martin and colleagues at ORNL recorded that it sold for \$10 per microgram in the early 1970s, \$27 in 1987, \$50 in 1989 and \$60 by 1999. Those prices excluded technical service fees of \$20,000 to \$25,000 to encapsulate and ship a multi-milligram order. The familiar figure of \$27 million per gram is therefore the 1987 price, repeated long after it stopped applying.

Restating those prices in today's money shows that the real increase happened almost all at once. We estimate that the 1987 price corresponds to about \$80 million per gram in August 2026 dollars and the 1989 price to about \$135 million. After that, list prices rose more slowly than inflation, and by 2000 the real price had slipped to about \$117 million per gram (Table 2).

  <caption><strong>Table 2. DOE prices for californium-252 and berkelium-249 in 2026 dollars.</strong> Published prices exclude encapsulation and shipping fees. ProteinIQ adjusted them with the US consumer price index for all urban consumers (CPI-U), using annual averages for 1987 to 1998, the June 2000 index for the 2000 price list, and the August 2026 index. Sources: Martin et al. (1999), ORNL (2000), US Bureau of Labor Statistics (2026).</caption>
  <thead>
    <tr>
      <th scope="col">Isotope</th>
      <th scope="col">Price year</th>
      <th scope="col">Published price</th>
      <th scope="col">Price per gram</th>
      <th scope="col">Price per gram in August 2026 dollars</th>
    </tr>
  </thead>
  <tbody>
    <tr>
      <td>Californium-252</td>
      <td>1987</td>
      <td>\$27 per microgram</td>
      <td>\$27 million</td>
      <td>\$80 million</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>Californium-252</td>
      <td>1989</td>
      <td>\$50 per microgram</td>
      <td>\$50 million</td>
      <td>\$135 million</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>Californium-252</td>
      <td>1994</td>
      <td>\$55 per microgram</td>
      <td>\$55 million</td>
      <td>\$124 million</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>Californium-252</td>
      <td>1998</td>
      <td>\$56 per microgram</td>
      <td>\$56 million</td>
      <td>\$115 million</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>Californium-252</td>
      <td>2000</td>
      <td>\$60 per microgram</td>
      <td>\$60 million</td>
      <td>\$117 million</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>Berkelium-249</td>
      <td>2000</td>
      <td>\$185.65 per microgram</td>
      <td>\$186 million</td>
      <td>\$361 million</td>
    </tr>
  </tbody>

Prices stopped being public after 2009. When DOE's largest customer for californium-252 withdrew from the market, DOE kept production going through a contract under which industrial buyers paid much of the up-front cost. The DOE isotopes subcommittee expected a significant price increase and noted that the commercial distributors had not disclosed the final price. DOE's current catalog offers berkelium-249, californium-252 and curium-248 by quotation only, with firm prices set during ordering. No price published since then replaces the 2000 list, so berkelium's place at the top rests on the last prices anyone made public.

Buyers pay these prices because the isotopes do things no cheaper material can. Californium-252 splits spontaneously and releases neutrons as it decays, which makes a few milligrams a compact neutron source for starting nuclear reactors, analyzing coal and cement, exploring for oil and powering security detection devices. Berkelium-249 has a narrower use. Targets made from it and other ORNL isotopes have been bombarded in particle accelerators to create heavier elements, contributing to the discovery of elements 104 to 106 and 113 to 118, including tennessine. With a half-life of 330 days, the time it takes half of a sample to decay, berkelium-249 cannot be stockpiled; about half of any batch has turned into californium-249 within a year.

## Why do francium and astatine have no price?

Francium and astatine are often called the most expensive elements, sometimes with prices of billions of dollars per gram, but no seller has ever quoted a price for a gram of either, because a gram has never existed. Los Alamos National Laboratory notes that no weighable quantity of francium has ever been prepared and estimates that Earth's entire crust holds about 30 grams of it at any moment. Its longest-lived isotope, francium-223, has a half-life of only 22 minutes. Astatine is similar. A weighable sample of the pure element is nearly impossible to assemble, and any visible amount would vaporize from the heat of its own radioactivity.

Astatine is, in fact, cheap to make in the amounts that matter. Astatine-211 is produced in a cyclotron by bombarding bismuth with alpha particles, for research on targeted alpha therapy, in which the isotope is attached to [monoclonal antibodies](/guides/what-are-monoclonal-antibodies) or other molecules that carry its short-range radiation to tumor cells. Zalutsky and Pruszynski estimated the production cost at Duke University at about \$10 per millicurie, a unit of radioactivity, or about \$30 per millicurie delivered to a distant user, less than the 2010 price of the commercially supplied imaging isotope iodine-123. The largest batch they reported, 6.6 gigabecquerels, was then the most astatine-211 ever produced in one run. From the half-life of astatine-211, we calculated that this record batch contained about 0.09 micrograms of astatine.

DOE therefore sells such isotopes by radioactivity rather than by mass: polonium-209 was priced per microcurie and actinium-225 per millicurie in 2000, and astatine-211 is offered by the millicurie today. Converting those prices into dollars per gram produces figures in the billions, but they describe a quantity no one will ever hold.

## What is the most expensive metal you can buy?

Rhodium is the most expensive metal traded as a commodity, at \$9,000 per troy ounce on October 6, 2026, followed by iridium at \$8,200. A troy ounce, the standard unit for precious metals, is 31.1 grams. Gold's London afternoon benchmark was \$4,141.65 per ounce on October 5, less than half the price of rhodium. Rhodium and iridium belong to the platinum-group metals, six chemically similar elements mined together, chiefly in South Africa, and used above all in the catalytic converters that clean car exhaust.

  <caption><strong>Table 3. Precious metal prices.</strong> Current prices are Johnson Matthey base prices for October 6, 2026, and the London afternoon gold benchmark for October 5, 2026, converted at 31.1035 grams per troy ounce. 2025 averages are means of all daily prices published that year, calculated by ProteinIQ. Sources: Johnson Matthey (2026), World Gold Council (2026).</caption>
  <thead>
    <tr>
      <th scope="col">Metal</th>
      <th scope="col">Price per troy ounce, October 2026</th>
      <th scope="col">Price per gram, October 2026</th>
      <th scope="col">Average price per troy ounce, 2025</th>
    </tr>
  </thead>
  <tbody>
    <tr>
      <td>Rhodium</td>
      <td>\$9,000</td>
      <td>\$289</td>
      <td>\$6,274</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>Iridium</td>
      <td>\$8,200</td>
      <td>\$264</td>
      <td>\$4,403</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>Gold</td>
      <td>\$4,141.65</td>
      <td>\$133</td>
      <td>\$3,432</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>Ruthenium</td>
      <td>\$1,750</td>
      <td>\$56</td>
      <td>\$733</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>Platinum</td>
      <td>\$1,730</td>
      <td>\$56</td>
      <td>\$1,295</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>Palladium</td>
      <td>\$1,179</td>
      <td>\$38</td>
      <td>\$1,165</td>
    </tr>
  </tbody>

Rhodium's lead over gold has narrowed sharply. Its price peaked at \$29,800 per ounce on March 23, 2021, when gold traded at \$1,726.20, so rhodium then cost more than 17 times as much as gold. Averaged over whole years, we calculated that rhodium cost 11 times as much as gold in 2021 and about twice as much in 2026 to date. The order beneath it has shifted too. In our annual averages, iridium edged past rhodium in 2024, at \$4,762 against \$4,637 per ounce, and palladium cost more than gold every year from 2019 to 2022. Each average uses every daily price published that year, and a [reproducible script](/data/guides/most-expensive-elements/analyze.py) regenerates the [annual averages](/data/guides/most-expensive-elements/precious-metal-annual-averages.csv) and the [inflation-adjusted DOE prices](/data/guides/most-expensive-elements/doe-isotope-prices-inflation-adjusted.csv).

![Line chart of annual average prices from 2019 to 2026: rhodium rises from about 3,900 to a 2021 peak near 20,000 US dollars per troy ounce, falls to about 4,600 in 2024 and recovers to about 9,600 in 2026, while iridium and gold climb more steadily to about 7,400 and 4,500.](/images/charts/rhodium-iridium-gold-prices-2019-2026.webp '**Figure 2. Annual average prices of rhodium, iridium and gold, 2019 to 2026.** ProteinIQ calculated each value as the mean of daily prices in US dollars per troy ounce; 2026 covers January 1 to October 6. Sources: [Johnson Matthey](https://matthey.com/products-and-markets/pgms-and-circularity/pgm-management) base prices for rhodium and iridium; [World Gold Council](https://www.gold.org/goldhub/data/gold-prices) daily gold price.')

Gold set its own record of \$5,405 on January 29, 2026, yet rhodium (\$11,100) and iridium (\$6,550) stayed ahead of it that day. Gold came nearest to iridium in late December 2025: on December 23, gold was \$4,449.40 and iridium \$4,500. The US Geological Survey (USGS) attributed rhodium's 24% rise in 2025 to lower production and stronger demand from makers of hard disks and chemical catalysts, and from carmakers substituting it for platinum.

Osmium, the sixth platinum-group metal, has no published benchmark price. The United States imported only 57 kilograms of it in 2025, too little to support a public market, so it cannot be ranked with confidence.

Packaging can also make a common element look expensive. Cesium and rubidium react violently with air and water, so laboratories buy them sealed in glass ampoules. In 2025, a 1-gram ampoule of cesium sold for \$104, and a 1-gram ampoule of rubidium for \$138, yet the same rubidium cost \$24.53 per gram in a 100-gram ampoule. Most of the price of a small ampoule pays for handling rather than for the metal inside.

## What sets the price of an element?

An element's price reflects how hard it is to supply a usable amount relative to demand, not how rare it is in nature. Several metals that are rarely encountered outside industry cost only a few dollars per gram: USGS put 2025 prices at \$9,300 per kilogram for thallium, \$5,200 for scandium metal, \$4,100 for germanium and \$2,600 for rhenium pellets. Obscurity alone, in other words, does not make an element costly.

The ranking therefore falls into three tiers. Precious metals are priced by markets in dollars per ounce, and their order changes with car production, industrial demand and investment flows; rhodium leads today, as it did in 2021, but by a far smaller margin, and iridium briefly overtook it in 2024. Reactor-made actinides are priced by the cost of running a high-flux reactor and a radiochemical plant for years to obtain milligrams, which puts berkelium and californium hundreds of thousands to more than a million times above gold. Francium and astatine, along with most short-lived radioactive isotopes, have no price per gram at all, because their atoms decay faster than any sample could accumulate. For anything a buyer can actually hold, the most expensive element is rhodium; among every element ever sold with a published price, it is berkelium.