Repair quotes give you one number. The unit being removed is worth something too, and it is your property until you agree otherwise. This works out the difference for 190 models across 14 makes.
Core bands are indicative and set by the stamped code on the unit rather than the badge on the car. A specialist recycler prices the actual part. Not an offer to buy.
Why the second number is missing from every quote
A catalytic converter contains platinum, palladium and rhodium. That is why replacing one is expensive, and it is also why the failed one has value.
When a shop fits a new converter, the old one goes somewhere. Either it is credited to you, or the shop sells it, or it goes in a bin behind the workshop where a scrap buyer collects it monthly. In two of those three cases the money leaves with someone other than you.
On a standard factory unit that is $50 to $450, and on some Toyota applications considerably more. The calculator above uses published core bands by make and model, and the replacement cost guide works through the repair side in detail.
What decides the core value
The stamped code, not the badge. Every converter carries a code that identifies the unit and its precious metal loading. Specialist recyclers price from that code, which is why two cars from the same manufacturer can differ several times over. The model ranges here are the band your unit is likely to fall in, not a quote for the specific part.
Original or aftermarket. An aftermarket unit is built to the minimum loading that applies, so its core is worth under $30 against $50 to $450 for a factory unit. That is the hidden cost of the cheaper replacement, paid at the second job rather than the first.
Condition. A unit that failed because an engine problem contaminated the substrate is worth less. Melted or crumbled units still carry metal but grade lower.
The metals themselves. Rhodium more than doubled to around $10,400 an ounce in early 2026 while palladium fell from about $2,800 in 2022 to roughly $950, as manufacturers substituted platinum. Cores heavy in rhodium held or gained; palladium-heavy cores lost value.
Three ways to realise it
In order of least effort.
Ask the shop to credit it. Many will, if asked before work starts. Get the credit written on the estimate, not agreed verbally.
Ask for the unit back and sell it to a code-based buyer yourself. Ten minutes of photographs and a phone call.
Let the shop keep it, and understand that you are gifting it.
The buyer routing guide covers why a specialist pays several times what a general yard will for the same part.
Before you use the number
Selling a converter carries documentation rules. Several states require seller identification, and an unmarked converter is presumed stolen in California, Texas and others. Those rules apply to selling one off your own car as much as to buying one, and the used converter guide sets out which states and what paperwork.
Diagnose before replacing. A P0420 code can come from a failing oxygen sensor or an exhaust leak rather than the converter, and replacing the wrong part costs the whole bill.
This is not a quote. The band is indicative. A specialist recycler prices the actual unit from its stamped code, and no buyer is obliged to pay any published figure.