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Cobalt Price — 10-Day Trend Behind the Balance
All prices in ₹ per gram · daily rate, updated once per day
Cobalt Supply and Demand, in One Place
Today's cobalt benchmark stands at ₹3.50 per gram, and that single number is the outcome of a supply side and a demand side that barely resemble each other. Supply is concentrated in one country and mostly rides along with someone else's mining decisions. Demand splits across two industries — EV batteries and aerospace — that have nothing to do with each other and run on completely different cycles. Understanding both halves separately explains far more than looking at the price alone ever could.
At today's rate, the same benchmark converts to 3,500.71 rupees per kilogram and roughly 3,500,710.00 rupees per metric tonne — the units that actually show up in a real cobalt purchase order. There's no retail bullion trade behind this figure the way there is for gold; the honest reference point is the London Metal Exchange, where the international cobalt market this rate derives from is actually priced.
- Supply, in short: DRC-dominated mining, mostly a copper/nickel byproduct
- Demand, in short: EV battery cathodes (NMC) plus aerospace superalloys
- Per kilogram today: ₹3,500.71
Cobalt Price by Weight
Today's Cobalt rate is Four Rupees per gram. At this rate, 10 grams of Cobalt costs Thirty Five Rupees.
| Unit | Weight | Price (INR) | Price in Words |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 Gram | 1.0000 g | ₹3.50 | Four Rupees |
| 8 Grams | 8.0000 g | ₹28.01 | Twenty Eight Rupees |
| 10 Grams | 10.0000 g | ₹35.01 | Thirty Five Rupees |
| 100 Grams | 100.0000 g | ₹350.07 | Three Hundred and Fifty Rupees |
| 1 Kilogram | 1,000.0000 g | ₹3,500.71 | Three Thousand Five Hundred and One Rupees |
| 1 Ounce (oz) | 28.3495 g | ₹99.24 | Ninety Nine Rupees |
| 1 Troy Ounce | 31.1035 g | ₹108.88 | One Hundred and Nine Rupees |
| 1 Metric Ton | 1,000,000.0000 g | ₹3,500,710.00 | Thirty Five Lakh Seven Hundred and Ten Rupees |
The Supply Side: Two Stages, Two Different Geographies
Mining cobalt and refining cobalt are not the same activity, and they don't happen in the same place. The Democratic Republic of Congo is, by a very wide margin, the world's largest producer of mined cobalt, sitting on copper deposits that happen to be unusually cobalt-rich. Because so much of that output is recovered as a byproduct of copper mining — and, to a growing extent, nickel mining elsewhere — new cobalt supply doesn't respond directly to the cobalt price. It responds to copper and nickel investment decisions made for entirely separate reasons.
Where the mined material actually goes next
A large share of DRC mine output moves through Chinese-owned or Chinese-financed mining operations and onward into Chinese refining capacity, which by a wide margin dominates the step that turns raw cobalt-bearing material into the battery-grade chemicals and alloy-grade metal that end users actually buy. That means two separate concentration risks sit inside this one supply chain — where the ore comes out of the ground, and where it gets turned into something a battery-materials plant or an alloy producer can actually use.
This two-stage structure is one reason cobalt supply chain disruptions can originate from more than one place. A mining or export disruption in the DRC matters enormously, but so would a disruption to the refining capacity that sits between raw ore and a finished, sellable product.
Cobalt Price — Last 10 Days
The most recent Cobalt price on record (2026-09-18) is Four Rupees per gram. This is down by Less than One Rupees from the previous day's rate of ₹3.55.
| Date | Price (INR/g) | Change |
|---|---|---|
| 2026-09-18 | ₹3.50 | -0.05 |
| 2026-09-17 | ₹3.55 | -0.05 |
| 2026-09-16 | ₹3.60 | -0.06 |
| 2026-09-15 | ₹3.66 | -0.04 |
| 2026-09-14 | ₹3.70 | -0.04 |
| 2026-09-13 | ₹3.74 | +0.00 |
| 2026-09-12 | ₹3.74 | +0.00 |
| 2026-09-11 | ₹3.74 | -0.07 |
| 2026-09-10 | ₹3.81 | -0.09 |
| 2026-09-09 | ₹3.90 | — |
The Demand Side: Two Pillars That Don't Move Together
Cathodes for lithium-ion EV batteries, particularly nickel-manganese-cobalt (NMC) chemistries, are the dominant modern driver of cobalt demand, and that story is tightly linked to global EV sales trends. Sitting alongside it, and considerably older, is cobalt's role in aerospace and industrial superalloys, valued for retaining strength at very high temperatures in jet-engine components — a demand pillar that runs on aircraft-manufacturing and defense cycles with no real connection to how many electric vehicles get sold in a given year.
There's a genuine complication layered on top of the battery pillar: some battery makers and automakers have publicly pursued lower-cobalt or cobalt-free chemistries, most notably lithium-iron-phosphate (LFP), partly in response to cobalt's supply-concentration risk and partly in response to sourcing and labor concerns in parts of the DRC's artisanal mining sector — a genuine, widely-reported industry concern that battery makers and regulators have publicly addressed. That shift works against cobalt demand growth even as overall EV adoption keeps climbing, which is exactly why forecasting cobalt demand is harder than forecasting demand for a single-use metal.
Put the two sides together and the balance this page is named for becomes clearer: concentrated, inflexible, two-stage supply meeting demand that is real but genuinely split, and partly optional in one of its two pillars. Any forecast of where that balance goes from here has to stay hedged — nobody can say with certainty how fast DRC output grows, how far Chinese refining capacity expands, or how quickly battery chemistry shifts, and treating any of those as settled would be overselling the certainty. For a longer look at how this balance has played out, the site's cobalt price history page carries the recorded daily figures beyond the 10-day window shown above.
Cobalt Supply and Demand — FAQs
Supply is dominated by one country — the Democratic Republic of Congo, by a very wide margin — and mostly arrives as a byproduct of copper and, increasingly, nickel mining rather than from dedicated cobalt mines. Demand splits across two genuinely distinct pillars: cathodes for lithium-ion EV batteries, particularly nickel-manganese-cobalt (NMC) chemistries, and longer-standing aerospace and industrial superalloy use.
Those are two different stages, and two different geographies. The DRC dominates mine production, by a very wide margin, but a large share of that raw material moves through Chinese-owned or Chinese-financed mining operations and Chinese refining capacity before it becomes the battery-grade chemicals or alloy-grade metal that end users actually buy. Mining dominance and refining dominance sit in different places, and both matter for the price on this page.
Because most cobalt is a byproduct, not a primary target. A mining company decides whether to expand a copper or nickel operation based on copper or nickel economics — the cobalt that comes along with the ore is a secondary revenue stream. A cobalt demand surge on its own doesn't reliably summon new dedicated cobalt-only mines the way it would for a primarily-mined metal.
It's a genuine, growing contributor alongside copper, though it has not displaced the DRC's dominant position. Nickel mining operations elsewhere in the world increasingly recover cobalt as a byproduct too, adding a geographically distinct supply stream over time even as the DRC remains, by a very wide margin, the largest single source.
In a sense, yes. Some battery makers and automakers have publicly pursued lower-cobalt or cobalt-free chemistries, most notably lithium-iron-phosphate (LFP), partly in response to cobalt's supply-concentration risk. That shift, where it happens, reduces how much new cobalt demand growth actually shows up even as EV sales overall keep rising — a real dynamic on the demand side of this balance, not just the supply side.
