$1,000 Buys 5,102 kWh of Power, 324 H100 Hours or 69 kg of Copper
This week's Watt-Ton reading prices a thousand dollars in physical units. Copper's World Bank average rose to $14,474 a ton in 2026-09, PJM West power averaged $144.72/MWh and Nucor lifted hot-rolled steel to $1,255/short ton.
W&T
By Watts & Tons desk
Published October 21, 2026 · Edition 2026-10-21 · Sources linked on every figure
The cost of one fixed basket of physical goods at the latest sourced prices: 1,000 kWh, 100 H100 GPU-hours, 10,000 rail ton-miles, 1 kg to orbit, 1 metric ton of copper and 1 tonne CO2e. Simple sum, no weights beyond the quantities, US-dollar items only. Inputs have different dates (shown below), so this is a snapshot, not a time series; week-over-week: n/a. Formula.
1,000 kWh of US retail electricity
$196.00
2026-09
100 H100 GPU-hours
$309.00
2026-10-21
10,000 rail ton-miles
$531.00
2024 (annual)
1 kg to orbit (rideshare)
$7,000.00
2026-08
1 metric ton of copper
$14,474.00
2026-09
1 tonne CO2e (California allowance)
$32.48
2026-08-19
Total
$22,542.48
The index
Power
$0.196 $/kWh
US average retail electricity (BLS CPI average price, U.S. city average)
Week-over-week: n/a (no weekly prior) · Period change: +0.0% vs prior month (2026-08)
PJM West hub real-time peak, 7-day average of daily weighted-average prices (ICE via EIA)
Week-over-week: +59.2% vs prior 7 days ending 2026-10-06 (4 trading days) ($90.92) · Period change: n/a
2026-08-12 → 2026-10-13
As of 7 trade-date window ending 2026-10-13 (5 trading days) · source · history CSV · data file · Latest single day: $265.40/MWh on 2026-10-13. A single-hub daily price is volatile and can swing several-fold week to week; the 7-day average is used for the week-over-week change.
Compute
$3.09 $/GPU-hour
H100 SXM rental, Ornn Compute Price Index (OCPI)
Week-over-week: n/a (no weekly prior) · Period change: n/a
US rail revenue per ton-mile, all waybill movements (STB Carload Waybill Sample, 2-digit STCC summary)
Week-over-week: n/a (no weekly prior) · Period change: +0.4% vs 2023 (annual)
2010 → 2024
As of 2024 (annual) · source · history CSV · data file · Annual series; STCC 21 redacted by STB. BTS Table 3-21 (AAR Class I) could not be read from source and is not used.
Launch
$7,000 $/kg to orbit
SpaceX rideshare published rate, 2026 launches (SSO/LEO)
Week-over-week: n/a (no weekly prior) · Period change: n/a
EU ETS allowance (EUA) primary auction clearing price, EEX (Auction 4. Period CAP3 EU)
Week-over-week: -2.2% vs 2026-10-13 (€87.04) · Period change: n/a
2026-09-07 → 2026-10-20
As of 2026-10-20 · source · history CSV · data file · Euro-denominated; not converted to dollars and not used in the $ converter.
Converter
Also: 1 H100 GPU-hour at 700 W max draw = 0.7 kWh (NVIDIA H100 spec), costing $0.137 at the US retail rate. kWh conversions go through dollars at listed prices; they are price equivalents, not physical energy equivalents.