What a ton of rebar costs, how many bars are in it, and how to price a job by the ton
← Back to the calculatorA price per ton is a price per pound in a bigger unit — 2,000 lb to the ton, per NIST Handbook 44 Appendix C — so the ton number moves with the steel market exactly as the pound number does. What the ton unit is genuinely good for is buying: yards invoice by weight, big orders get quoted per ton, and “a ton of rebar” is a real, countable pile — 2,994 linear feet of #4. The price-per-foot page works the five-unit conversion table; this page keeps the ton and what you do with it.
The basis for every figure on this page: #4 bar at $12.00 for a 20 ft stick (2026 national retail average, updated 20 June 2026) and reinforcing steel at $0.72 per pound (published April 2026 trade figure). Both are dated and sourced at the foot of the page. They are published market figures, not our prices, and not a quote.
A short ton (tn) is 2,000 lb — twenty hundredweights of 100 lb each, per NIST Handbook 44 Appendix C. A metric tonne (t) is 2,204.623 lb: 10.2% more steel for the same word. A long ton of 2,240 lb exists on paper, but NIST notes it is used commercially in the US “to only a very limited extent.” In rebar trade, an unqualified “ton” is the 2,000 lb short ton.
The price consequence is the part that costs money. At one rate per pound, $1,796.41 per short ton is the same money as $1,980.20 per metric tonne. If a quote says “per ton” and the supplier ships a tonne, you receive 204.6 lb of extra steel for the same money — your effective rate reads $0.815 per pound instead of $0.898, 9.3% under the number you thought you agreed. If you compare a US per-short-ton quote against an international per-tonne quote, you are 10.2% apart before the negotiation starts. Make the document spell out which ton it means.
Mills announce in the two units together. Gerdau’s May 2026 letter raised “the transactional price of Concrete Reinforcing Bar Products in the United States by $1.50/cwt ($30 per net ton)” — one price, two units, and $1.50 per cwt is $0.015 per pound. That is how a mill-level change reads in the unit this page counts in.
Two dated rates anchor every figure on this page. Both come from published surveys, and both are quoted the way the market quotes them:
| Basis | $ per lb | $ per cwt | $ per short ton | 20 ft #4 stick |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Retail average | $0.898 | $89.82 | $1,796.41 | $12.00 |
| Mill or contractor | $0.720 | $72.00 | $1,440.00 | $9.62 |
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The two rows are 24.8% apart, and that gap is a market difference, not an arithmetic one: retail yards carry inventory and price small lots, while the mill or contractor level is the trade rate. Both move with the same steel market. At the mill end the ton is the natural unit — orders are priced per net ton, and a $30 per ton announcement is 1.7% of the retail ton price: small in retail terms, real money at volume.
A ton is a weight. The count of bars is what changes with size — and it changes a lot. At the ASTM A615 nominal weights:
| Bar | lb per ft | Linear ft per ton | 20 ft sticks per ton | $ per stick |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| #3 | 0.376 | 5,319 | 266.0 | $6.75 |
| #4 | 0.668 | 2,994 | 149.7 | $12.00 |
| #5 | 1.043 | 1,918 | 95.9 | $18.74 |
| #6 | 1.502 | 1,332 | 66.6 | $26.98 |
| #7 | 2.044 | 978 | 48.9 | $36.72 |
| #8 | 2.670 | 749 | 37.5 | $47.96 |
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Every row costs the same $1,796.41: 266.0 sticks × $6.75, and 37.5 sticks × $47.96, are the same money. A ton of #3 is a truckload of 266 sticks; a ton of #8 is 37 fat ones. So when the yard says “a ton of rebar,” ask which bar — the steel is the same, the pile is not.
This matters most when you order by the ton for a job drawn in small bars: the stick count you need is higher than the ton count suggests. The weights behind the table are the ASTM A615 nominal weights, and a real order adds laps and offcuts on top, which the estimator page works out.
Same bar, same month, four regions. The 20 June 2026 retail survey quotes a 20 ft #4 stick at four regional averages; converted at the ASTM nominal 13.36 lb per stick, they read:
| Region | $ per 20 ft stick | $ per lb | $ per short ton |
|---|---|---|---|
| Northeast | $13.80 | $1.033 | $2,065.87 |
| West | $13.44 | $1.006 | $2,011.98 |
| Midwest | $11.64 | $0.871 | $1,742.51 |
| South | $11.04 | $0.826 | $1,652.69 |
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A 25% spread on one bar in one month — wider than the retail-to-mill gap, and all of it inside one country. The survey’s own caveat is “estimates only — not quotes,” and the point is not the exact numbers: a per-ton price is regional before it is anything else, which is why every figure on this page carries a date and a place.
The 20 ft × 40 ft driveway from the driveway spacing page, in #4 bar at 18 in o.c. both ways with 1 in cover, takes 14 bars of 40 ft and 27 bars of 20 ft — 1,100 ft, or 734.8 lb. That is 0.367 short tons. Priced at the dated rates:
| Basis | $ per lb | $ per short ton | Cost of 734.8 lb |
|---|---|---|---|
| Retail average | $0.898 | $1,796.41 | $660.00 |
| Mill or contractor | $0.720 | $1,440.00 | $529.06 |
| South region | $0.826 | $1,652.69 | $607.20 |
| Midwest | $0.871 | $1,742.51 | $640.20 |
| West | $1.006 | $2,011.98 | $739.20 |
| Northeast | $1.033 | $2,065.87 | $759.00 |
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Two routes, one answer — that is the units check. Now the part that gets invoiced:
A 20 ft × 20 ft slab, #4 at 12 in o.c. both ways, takes 40 sticks — 800 ft, 534.4 lb. So one ton of #4 builds 3.74 of them, about 1,497 sq ft. That makes the ton a budgeting unit as well as a buying unit: steel-only cost per square foot is
| Layout | lb per sq ft | $ per sq ft, retail | $ per sq ft, mill |
|---|---|---|---|
| #4 at 12 in o.c. | 1.336 | $1.20 | $0.96 |
| #4 at 18 in o.c. | 0.891 | $0.80 | $0.64 |
| #5 at 12 in o.c. | 2.086 | $1.87 | $1.50 |
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The 2 in the formula is the two directions. Steel only — chairs, tie wire, laps and delivery are not in it, and the spacing pages carry the layout side: slab spacing and driveway spacing.
At the 2026 national retail average, a short ton of rebar prices at $1,796.41 — $0.898 per pound, or $89.82 per hundredweight. At the published mill or contractor level ($0.72 per pound, April 2026) the same ton is $1,440.00. A ton is 2,000 lb, so the ton number is the pound number times two thousand: when the steel market moves, both move together. Regional retail quotes for the same #4 bar ran $1,653 to $2,066 per ton in June 2026.
A US short ton is 2,000 lb — twenty hundredweights of 100 lb each, per NIST Handbook 44 Appendix C. A metric tonne is 2,204.623 lb, 10.2% more, and a long ton is 2,240 lb. In US rebar trade an unqualified ton is the 2,000 lb short ton. If a quote switches from short tons to tonnes without saying so, your effective rate moves by 9.3%, which is why the unit belongs in writing.
A 20 ft × 40 ft driveway in #4 bar at 18 in o.c. both ways takes 1,100 ft of bar — 734.8 lb, or 0.367 short tons of takeoff steel. At the retail average that is $660.00; at the mill level, $529.06; across the June 2026 regional quotes, $607 to $759. Price the order weight, not the takeoff: laps and offcuts add 0–20%, so the real tonnage and cost land between those numbers and their order-weight versions ($726 at +10%).
It depends on the bar size, and only on the bar size. At the ASTM A615 nominal weights, a short ton is 266.0 twenty-foot sticks of #3, 149.7 of #4, 95.9 of #5, 66.6 of #6, 48.9 of #7 and 37.5 of #8 — the same $1,796.41 in every row, because the ton is a weight and the count is what changes. A ton of #8 is 749 linear feet; a ton of #3 is 5,319.
Not because of the unit. A price per ton is a price per pound times 2,000 — the ton is a scaled pound price, not a discount. Real volume discounts exist, but they come from the supplier and the market, not from the unit you quote in. Compare quotes in dollars per pound first, then negotiate volume.
Because steel reprices with its market, and every per-ton figure you see is a snapshot. Mills announce changes in cwt and per net ton with a validity window — Gerdau's May 2026 letter raised prices $1.50/cwt ($30 per net ton) and price-protected orders shipped within about two weeks. Retail surveys date their averages the same way. A per-ton number without a date is not usable; compare like dates.
2,000 lb versus 2,204.623 lb — a metric tonne is 10.2% heavier. At one rate per pound, $1,796.41 per short ton is the same money as $1,980.20 per metric tonne. If you pay a per-short-ton price and receive a tonne, you get 204.6 lb of extra steel and your effective rate drops to $0.815 per pound, 9.3% under the number you quoted. International price indices quote per metric tonne; US mills quote per net short ton.
Price the order weight, in whatever unit the invoice uses. For big orders the yard bills in tons and cwt; for retail stick purchases it is per bar. The ton is the natural invoicing unit because the supplier sells steel by weight, and the pound is the comparable unit because it hides nothing. The estimator page takes your takeoff to an order weight, and the tonnage page converts that weight to short tons and tonnes.