Metals With the Highest Thermal Conductivity

About This Dataset

This chart ranks the ten metals that conduct heat best, measured in watts per metre-kelvin at room temperature. Silver leads, which is why the best conductors of heat are also the best conductors of electricity.

✨ AI Insight

Silver conducts heat best of all metals at 429 W/m-K, narrowly ahead of copper (401 W/m-K). Because silver is expensive, copper is the practical choice for most heat sinks and cookware, trading a small performance loss for far lower cost. Gold (318) and aluminium (237) round out the elite group, with aluminium prized for combining good conductivity with light weight. There is then a steady decline through beryllium, tungsten, magnesium and molybdenum. Nickel closes the list at 91 W/m-K, meaning silver conducts heat almost five times better than nickel. Notably, the order of the top four, silver, copper, gold, aluminium, is identical to their ranking for electrical conductivity, reflecting the shared role of free electrons in carrying both heat and charge.

Source: CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics

Key Findings

Auto-computed highlights from this dataset

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Silver leads with 429 in All Time.

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Average value in All Time: 226 · median: 187.

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Gap in All Time: Silver is 4.7× larger than Nickel.