Best ores to flip in OSRS
Ores sit at the bottom of the Smithing supply chain, which is exactly what makes them predictable to flip. The trade is thin margins carried by heavy volume, so knowing which ores move and which just sit is the whole game.
Top ore flips right now
A live snapshot of the 3 highest-scoring ore flips, rebuilt on every deploy from the official OSRS Wiki prices. Margins are after the 2% GE tax. This is a snapshot, not a promise; the market moves.
Snapshot built Wed, 08 Jul 2026 20:16:36 GMT. Live rankings refresh every two minutes in GE IQ.
Why ores are a solid flipping category
Ores are a raw material, not a finished good. Their demand comes from a small number of sinks that never really stop: players training Smithing, ironmen stockpiling for bars, and the occasional clue reward. That steady consumption keeps the popular ores liquid, which is what a flipper actually wants. You are rarely gambling on a hype spike. You are trading a stable item that a predictable stream of buyers needs every day.
The trade-off is that per-unit margins on ores are usually small. This is a volume category. You make money by moving large stacks inside your buy limit, not by catching a big swing on a single item. That suits patient flippers and anyone who wants lower-variance activity over flashy one-off wins.
The mechanics that matter for ores
A few Grand Exchange mechanics decide whether an ore is worth your time:
- Volume. High daily trade volume means your buy and sell offers actually fill. Coal, iron, mithril, adamantite, and runite lead the pack here. Thinly traded ores can leave you holding a stack for hours.
- Buy limits. Each ore has a 4-hour buy limit that caps how much you can accumulate per cycle. High-volume, low-price ores like coal have generous limits, so your ceiling per flip is set by capital and patience more than by the limit itself.
- Spread. The gap between the realistic buy price and sell price, after the Grand Exchange tax on the sale, is your actual margin. On cheap ores the spread is only a few coins, so tax and price movement eat into it quickly.
- F2P pressure. Free-to-play Smithing is bottlenecked on the same handful of ores, so F2P-tradeable ores tend to stay unusually active. That constant churn is good for fill rates.
Which ores are worth watching
The reliable names are the ones the Smithing economy is built on:
- Coal. The backbone of smithing. Nearly every bar above bronze needs coal, so demand is broad and constant. It is the closest thing to an always-liquid ore, though the margin per unit is thin.
- Iron ore. Huge volume from early Smithing training and steel bar production. Very easy to fill, low price, so treat it as a volume play.
- Mithril and adamantite. Mid-tier ores with solid volume and slightly more room in the spread than coal or iron, since fewer players farm them casually.
- Runite ore. The highest-value common ore. Lower volume than coal but a bigger absolute spread, so it suits flippers with more capital who can wait for fills.
Ores also tie into the bar market downstream. When bar prices move, ore demand often follows, so it is worth glancing at the related bars before committing capital.
Common traps to avoid
The mistakes that quietly erase ore profits:
- Ignoring tax. On a cheap ore the Grand Exchange sell tax can be a real share of your spread. A margin that looks positive on paper can be flat after tax.
- Chasing low-volume ores. Silver, gold, and other niche ores can show a tempting spread but trade too rarely to fill both sides quickly. Your coins get stuck.
- Overcommitting on a single ore. Even liquid ores drift. Spreading across a few of the high-volume names smooths out the variance.
- Trading stale numbers. The Grand Exchange moves fast. Prices, volumes, and spreads shift through the day, so always confirm live before you place an offer.
How GE IQ helps
GE IQ is a free flip finder that scores every tradeable ore on live data. The A-to-F grade folds volume, spread, and tax into one honest rating so you can see at a glance which ores are actually worth flipping right now, not in theory. The bankroll filter narrows the list to flips your current coins can realistically fill, and everything updates from live prices so you are never trading on stale numbers. Flipping carries risk and no result is guaranteed, so use the grade as a starting point and check the numbers before you commit.