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Blood Test Tracker

Copper

The total amount of copper in your blood, most of it carried by a liver protein called ceruloplasmin. It helps show whether you have too little or too much copper.

AI-verified against cited sources. Awaiting expert reviewAlso called CuLOINC 5631-7

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The usual range for Copper depends on sex. Choose female or male above to see where you stand.

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What it is

Copper is a trace mineral your body needs to make energy, build connective tissue, use iron and keep nerves healthy. You get it from foods such as shellfish, nuts, seeds and organ meats. Most copper in your blood rides on ceruloplasmin, a protein made by the liver. This test measures the total copper in a blood sample. Your liver clears extra copper into bile, so the level also reflects how well that process works.

Why it matters

Too little copper can cause anemia that doesn't improve with iron, low white blood cell counts, and nerve problems such as numbness and trouble walking. Copper also builds up in the body in Wilson disease, a rare inherited liver condition, although total blood copper is often low in that condition. Inflammation, pregnancy and estrogen can all change the number, so clinicians usually read it together with ceruloplasmin and other tests.

If it’s low

A low result can mean your body isn't getting or absorbing enough copper. It can also be low when the carrier protein ceruloplasmin is low, as in Wilson disease or when the gut or kidneys lose a lot of protein. Low copper that lasts can affect blood cells and nerves, so clinicians often check it along with a blood count, ceruloplasmin and zinc.

Common causes

  • High-dose zinc from supplements or zinc-containing denture adhesives
  • Weight-loss (bariatric) surgery or other stomach surgery
  • Poor absorption of nutrients (malabsorption)
  • Malnutrition, or long-term intravenous nutrition that lacks copper
  • Corticosteroid medicines
  • Protein loss from the gut or kidneys
  • Wilson disease (rare)

What can help

  • Ask your clinician whether your diet, supplements (especially zinc) or past surgery could explain it
  • Ask whether ceruloplasmin, zinc and a blood count should be checked
  • Foods that contain copper include shellfish, nuts, seeds and organ meats; talk with a clinician before changing supplements

If it’s high

A high result often reflects something other than too much copper in your diet. Copper rises with inflammation, infection and stress, with pregnancy, and with estrogen-containing medicines such as birth control pills. Contamination during collection can also raise it. Your clinician may repeat the test or add other tests to sort out what a high result means.

Common causes

  • Pregnancy (levels can reach about three times the usual range in the third trimester)
  • Birth control pills or other estrogen treatment
  • Infection, inflammation or physical stress
  • Copper or multivitamin supplements
  • Contamination from the collection tube, skin or metal tools
  • Long-term bile duct conditions of the liver, such as primary biliary cholangitis or primary sclerosing cholangitis

What can help

  • Ask whether the test should be repeated with a trace-element-free tube
  • Review your supplements, including multivitamins, with a clinician
  • Ask whether ceruloplasmin or liver tests should be checked as well

Usual ranges

What labs print as the reference range, by who was tested. Ranges differ a little between labs, so the range on your own report is the one your result is judged against.

The usual range depends on sex and age. Choose women or men to see the one that applies.

Children and teens 3 ranges

See Copper by age and sex, with the U.S. survey numbers where they exist.

If this applies to you

Copper means a little more for some people. Open the one that fits you.

Had weight-loss surgery

Copper can run low after gastric bypass and duodenal switch, and high doses of zinc can make that more likely. ASMBS suggests checking copper at least yearly after these operations, even without symptoms, and BOMSS includes sleeve gastrectomy too.

Blood tests after weight-loss surgery

How common is your level?

NHANES describes the US civilian, non-institutionalized population, not a 'healthy' reference group. People with disease, on medication, fasting or not (except fasting-subsample markers), smokers and so on are all included. A percentile says where a value sits among Americans of that sex and age, not whether it is normal.

How Copper varies with age in the U.S.Shaded: middle 90% and middle 50% of people. Line: the median. µg/dL. Point at any age, or focus the chart and use the arrow keys, to read both sexes in words.

Use the left and right arrow keys to read each age. Shift moves five years.

Reference data derived from CDC/NCHS National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), cycles 2015-2016. Analysis by bloodtesttracker.com; not endorsed by CDC, NCHS or HHS.

Explore Copper by age and sex: every percentile as a table, with a download.

What can affect your result

  • Pregnancy: copper rises, up to about three times the usual range in the third trimester
  • Estrogen: birth control pills and hormone treatment raise copper
  • Inflammation, infection and stress raise copper, because ceruloplasmin goes up as part of the body's inflammatory response
  • Age and sex: babies and children have different ranges, and adult women's upper limit is higher than men's
  • High zinc intake lowers copper by blocking its absorption
  • Lab and method: intervals differ between labs, and collection tubes must be free of trace metals
  • Copper from non-certified tubes, skin or metal tools can falsely raise the result, so labs use trace-element-free tubes. ARUP recommends confirming an unexpectedly high result on a second sample in a certified metal-free tube.
  • Supplements, vitamins and minerals can change the result. ARUP says patients may be asked, on their physician's advice, to stop nutritional supplements, vitamins, minerals and nonessential over-the-counter medicines before the test, so ask your clinician or lab before the draw.
  • Contrast dye: Mayo Clinic Laboratories advises waiting 96 hours after gadolinium, iodine or barium contrast before collecting a sample, because high levels can interfere with the mass spectrometry method.

Blood counts in copper deficiency typically recover over about 4 to 12 weeks of treatment, according to a 2026 review. How fast the copper level itself changes depends on the cause.

When to talk to a clinician

Talk with a clinician if your result is below about 70 µg/dL (11 µmol/L), especially with unexplained anemia, a low white blood cell count, numbness or trouble walking. Also talk with a clinician about a high result that pregnancy, estrogen, illness or a supplement doesn't explain, or if Wilson disease runs in your family.

Questions you could ask

  • Is serum copper the right test for my situation, or would ceruloplasmin or a 24-hour urine copper tell us more?
  • Could pregnancy, estrogen or inflammation explain this result?
  • Should we repeat the test using a trace-element-free tube?
  • Should ceruloplasmin or liver tests be checked as well?
  • Could my diet, supplements (including zinc) or a past surgery explain this?
  • Should we check ceruloplasmin, zinc and a blood count?

Questions people ask

Why is my copper high when I don't take copper supplements?

Copper often rises for reasons that have nothing to do with what you eat. Pregnancy, birth control pills, estrogen, infection and inflammation can all raise it. A collection tube that isn't free of trace metals can also add copper. Your clinician may repeat the test to check.

How are zinc and copper connected?

Taking a lot of zinc for a long time can block copper absorption and lead to low copper. That is why clinicians often ask about zinc supplements and zinc denture creams when a copper level is low.

How do I convert µg/dL to µmol/L?

Multiply µg/dL by 0.157, so 100 µg/dL is about 15.7 µmol/L. To go the other way, multiply µmol/L by 6.355.

Show the science and sources

Units

  • 1 µg/dL = 1 µg/dL
  • 1 µg/dL = 0.1574 µmol/L
  • 1 µg/dL = 0.01 mg/L
  • 1 µg/dL = 10 µg/L

Open the Copper unit converter

Is a change real?

Copper naturally varies about 7.5% from test to test in the same healthy person. Between two results from the same lab, a change of roughly 23% or more is unlikely to be day-to-day noise or lab variation (95% reference change value). Source: Systematic review and meta-analysis of within-subject and between-subject biological variation estimates of serum zinc, copper and selenium (Coskun A et al.).

For clinicians and researchers

Ceruloplasmin carries most circulating copper (about 90% of copper leaving the liver, per AASLD) and is an acute-phase reactant, so total copper rises with inflammation, estrogen and pregnancy (ARUP: up to about 3 times normal in the third trimester) and has been reported to track CRP (Curr Nutr Rep 2025). In Wilson disease (ATP7B loss), less copper is loaded onto ceruloplasmin, so total copper and ceruloplasmin tend to be low while non-ceruloplasmin-bound ('free') copper is high. AASLD advises against relying on ceruloplasmin alone, and no single gold-standard test exists. Methods are ICP-MS (ARUP) or ICP-MS/MS (Mayo) on trace-element-free tubes, with serum separated from cells within 2 hours (ARUP). Intervals differ by lab: ARUP lists 70–140 µg/dL (men) and 80–155 µg/dL (women), and Mayo Clinic Laboratories lists 73–129 and 77–206 µg/dL. A 2026 review (Nutrients) suggests considering deficiency when serum copper is below 70 µg/dL (11 µmol/L) or ceruloplasmin is below 15 mg/dL, and a 2025 review (Curr Nutr Rep) notes that serum copper may be an insensitive deficiency test. Low values also occur with protein loss, so liver copper or the response to a copper trial may be needed to confirm deficiency.

LOINC 5631-7 (primary), 14665-4. Specimen: serum-or-plasma.

Sources

  1. Copper, Serum or Plasma (ARUP test 0020096), ARUP Laboratories
  2. Copper, Serum (Mayo test CUS1), Mayo Clinic Laboratories (via testcatalog.org)
  3. Unusual Micronutrient Deficiencies as Causes of Anemia, Nutrients (2026)
  4. Wilson disease: a summary of the updated AASLD Practice Guidance, Hepatology Communications (2023)
  5. Poor Vision from Copper Deficiency, Current Nutrition Reports (2025)
  6. Copper (PubChem CID 23978), PubChem, National Library of Medicine

AI-verified against cited sources. Awaiting expert review. Last reviewed 2026-10-03. How we build and check these pages.

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