Metals With the Highest Electrical Conductivity

About This Dataset

This chart ranks the ten metals that conduct electricity best, measured in megasiemens per metre at 20 degrees Celsius. Silver is the single best electrical conductor of any metal, followed closely by copper.

✨ AI Insight

Silver is the best electrical conductor at 63.0 MS/m, just ahead of copper at 59.6 MS/m. Despite silver's slight edge, copper dominates real-world wiring because it is far cheaper and nearly as conductive. Gold (41.1) resists corrosion and so is favoured for connectors and contacts, while aluminium (35.5) offers about 60% of copper's conductivity at a fraction of the weight, making it standard for overhead power lines. Calcium is a surprising fifth at 29.8 MS/m. After that, conductivity falls sharply: tungsten and zinc sit near 17 MS/m and platinum closes the list at just 9.43 MS/m, roughly one-seventh of silver. The top four metals match the ranking for thermal conductivity, underscoring the shared electron physics behind both properties.

Source: Electrical resistivity and conductivity data

Key Findings

Auto-computed highlights from this dataset

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Silver leads with 63 in All Time.

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Average value in All Time: 30 · median: 24.

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Gap in All Time: Silver is 6.7× larger than Platinum.