Reviewed September 2026 against Intratec commodity pricing data, IMARC Group’s ammonium sulfate pricing report, and Market.us industry research.

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Ammonium Sulfate Market Analysis: The Short Answer

US ammonium sulfate spot prices moved from $435 per metric ton in September 2025 to $233 per metric ton by November 2025, before the quarterly average for Q4 2025 settled at $276 per metric ton, according to Intratec’s commodity price tracker. That is the single most volatile stretch this market has shown in over a year, and it is the reason a search for “ammonium sulfate price per ton 2025” returns wildly different answers depending on which week the source was pulled. Separately, the ammonium sulfate market in adjacent regions like Asia-Pacific follows a different demand curve entirely, driven by diversified cropping intensity rather than the US byproduct-supply swings covered here.

This article is scoped to the use of ammonium compounds in US agriculture: ammonium sulfate, ammonium thiosulfate, glufosinate ammonium, and — where cost data exists — ammonium bisulfate and ammonium sulfite. Every figure below carries its source and date, because a static “average price” is exactly what has failed to earn clicks on this topic before. If you need a number newer than what is printed here, the source link takes you to the live tracker.

Who Actually Buys These Products in the US

• Row-crop growers: Corn, wheat, and soybean operations using ammonium sulfate for sulfur correction
• Specialty crop growers: Fruit, vegetable, and nut operations in sulfur-deficient soils, particularly in the Pacific Northwest and parts of California
• Herbicide-tolerant crop growers: Users of glufosinate ammonium as a non-selective and resistance-management herbicide
• Forestry nurseries: Seedling production for plantation and reforestation programs
• Turf managers: Golf courses, sports fields, and sod farms needing predictable, low-salt nutrition
• Industrial buyers: Water treatment and specialty chemical manufacturers sourcing ammonium bisulfate and ammonium sulfite

US Ammonium Sulfate Prices: What the Data Actually Shows

Four separate price points from commodity and market-research trackers show a market that does not move in one direction. Intratec’s spot price series recorded $435 per metric ton in September 2025, then $233 per metric ton in November 2025 — a drop of roughly 46% in two months. Intratec’s Q4 2025 quarterly average, which smooths daily volatility, came in at $276 per metric ton. IMARC Group’s pricing report separately tracked a $383 per metric ton figure for Q2 2026.

Read together, these four data points span $233 to $435 per metric ton across a roughly nine-month window, which converts to a range of roughly $211 to $395 per US ton (2,000 lb) at the short-ton conversion buyers in the US typically budget against. That spread is the actual answer to “ammonium sulfate price per ton 2025″ — not a single number, because there isn’t one. Any page that gives you a flat “$180/ton” figure without a date attached is quoting a moment, not a market.

To get a figure newer than any of these, go directly to Intratec’s ammonium sulfate price tracker for the current spot number, or IMARC Group’s ammonium sulfate pricing report for the latest quarterly forecast. Both update on rolling schedules tied to feedstock and freight movements, not fixed annual cycles, so checking the live page is the only way to get a number that outlives this article.

The Use of Ammonium: Sulfate, Thiosulfate, and Bisulfate Compared

“Ammonium” in an agricultural or industrial context almost never means the free ammonium ion — it means one of several distinct salts, each with a different job. Ammonium sulfate ((NH4)2SO4) is a solid granular or crystalline fertilizer delivering N and S together. Ammonium thiosulfate ((NH4)2S2O3) is a liquid, most often blended into UAN solutions as both a sulfur source and a nitrification inhibitor. Ammonium bisulfate (NH4HSO3, sometimes labeled NH4HSO4 depending on the process) is primarily an industrial acid salt used in water treatment and as a pH-adjusting agent, with limited direct agronomic use. Ammonium sulfite ((NH4)2SO3) is used in flue-gas desulfurization and some industrial processes rather than as a mainstream field fertilizer.

The confusion between these four is exactly why a generic “use of ammonium” search lands on pages that only cover one of them. Here is what distinguishes each in practical terms:

• Ammonium sulfate: 21% N, 24% S, solid form, standard broadacre and turf fertilizer
• Ammonium thiosulfate: Liquid, commonly blended at 6-12% of a UAN solution’s volume, valued for its nitrification-inhibiting properties alongside S supply
• Ammonium bisulfate: Industrial acid salt, water treatment and pH control, not a standard row-crop fertilizer
• Ammonium sulfite: Industrial reducing agent and flue-gas desulfurization byproduct, minimal direct farm use

Ammonium Thiosulfate Market Size and Growth

The US ammonium thiosulfate fertilizer market was sized at $167.83 million in 2025, with a forecast to reach $287.46 million by 2035, according to SNS Insider’s market report. That implies a compound annual growth rate of 5.54% over the 2025-2035 window, per Market Research Future’s separate tracking of the same market. Liquid ammonium thiosulfate accounts for approximately 70% of the current market, per Market.us, reflecting its primary use as a UAN blend additive rather than a standalone granular product.

That 5.54% CAGR is meaningfully slower than glufosinate’s projected growth (covered below), which tells you something about where the two markets sit in their adoption cycles: thiosulfate is a mature, steadily-growing input tied to existing UAN infrastructure, while glufosinate is still expanding its acreage footprint. If you are budgeting a multi-year sulfur program, the thiosulfate figures above are the ones to anchor against — not the sulfate spot price swings in the section above, since the two products serve different application methods (liquid in-season blending versus granular pre-plant).

No current per-ton or per-gallon spot price for ammonium thiosulfate was found in the sources checked for this article — market-size figures exist, but liquid AMS unit pricing is not separately published in the reports reviewed. If you need a delivered price, request a current quote from your regional liquid fertilizer blender, since thiosulfate pricing tracks the UAN and sulfur markets more closely than it tracks the granular ammonium sulfate prices quoted above.

Glufosinate Ammonium Market: North America’s Share

The North America glufosinate ammonium herbicide market was valued at $188.5 million in 2025, according to Research and Markets, representing 41.7% of the global glufosinate ammonium market that same year, per Market.us. Globally, the glufosinate market was sized at $1.25 billion in 2025 with a projection to reach $2.50 billion by 2031 — a doubling in six years, implying a compound annual growth rate of 12.8% over 2025-2031, per Market.us’s forecast.

Weed control applications account for 68.7% of glufosinate’s product-application market in 2025, per Market.us, ahead of desiccation and other uses. That weed-control dominance is consistent with glufosinate’s role as a non-selective herbicide used in glufosinate-tolerant crop systems and as a resistance-management rotation partner alongside glyphosate. North America’s 41.7% global share in 2025 makes it the largest single regional market — larger than any other named region in the Market.us breakdown — which is notable given glyphosate-resistant weed pressure has been a documented driver of alternative-mode-of-action herbicide adoption across US row-crop acreage.

What this article’s sources do not include: USDA acreage-level adoption data for glufosinate-tolerant crop systems, or state-by-state application volumes. If you need that granularity, USDA NASS’s Agricultural Chemical Use survey program is the correct primary source to check directly, since it publishes crop-specific pesticide use data on a rotating multi-year schedule by commodity.

Ammonium Bisulfate and Sulfite Production Plant Costs

Specific CAPEX figures for ammonium bisulfate and ammonium sulfite production plants were not available in the sources reviewed for this article — the detailed cost breakdowns exist but sit behind paywalled industry reports, such as those published by Procurement Resource’s ammonium sulfate manufacturing plant project reports. What is publicly confirmed is that plant cost estimates in this category typically span raw material and utility costs, land and site development, machinery and technology licensing, and project engineering — the standard cost categories used across ammonium-salt manufacturing plant reports.

If you are scoping a real plant investment, the practical path is to commission or purchase a project-specific report — Procurement Resource’s ammonium sulfate manufacturing plant project report is the closest published methodology for this compound family, and analogous bisulfate/sulfite reports can typically be commissioned from the same providers using your specific plant capacity and location as inputs. A generic per-ton CAPEX figure quoted without a stated plant capacity, feedstock source, and country is not usable for real project planning, and this article will not manufacture one to fill that gap.

Agronomic Role of Ammonium Sulfate

Ammonium sulfate’s agronomic case rests on delivering nitrogen and sulfur in forms roots can use immediately, addressing two yield-limiting nutrients in one granule. Intensive cropping systems — particularly continuous corn and high-yield wheat — deplete soil sulfur reserves faster than nitrogen, since atmospheric sulfur deposition has declined for decades as US emissions of sulfur dioxide have fallen under Clean Air Act programs. That decline in atmospheric S deposition is the actual mechanism behind rising S-deficiency reports in row crops across the Midwest and Great Plains, not a fertilizer-industry talking point.

Core Agronomic Functions

Soil pH Behavior

Ammonium sulfate is acid-forming through nitrification, but its acidifying effect per unit of N is comparable to or less than ammonium nitrate in most agronomic references, making it a workable choice on neutral-to-slightly-acid soils where growers want predictable S delivery without an aggressive pH swing. On soils already below pH 6.0, any ammonium-based N source — sulfate included — will still require lime program planning; sulfate does not exempt a grower from that math, it just changes the rate of acidification versus straight urea or anhydrous ammonia.

Comparison Table: Four Ammonium-Based Products

The table below puts all four products this page covers side by side, since no single source lists them together — that gap is exactly why this comparison is worth more than any one of the underlying reports alone.

Figures as cited in the sections above; check each source link for updates beyond the dates shown.

Blend Cost Calculator

Because ammonium sulfate delivers a fixed 21% N and 24% S regardless of market price, the number that actually matters for budgeting is cost per pound of nutrient delivered, not cost per ton — use the calculator below with your own quoted price and acreage.

Assumptions: uses a flat per-ton price you enter (default $276/ton reflects Intratec's Q4 2025 quarterly average — replace with your own quote), a standard short ton (2,000 lb), and the default 21% N / 24% S analysis. It excludes freight, application cost, blending fees, and any starter-fertilizer interactions — treat the output as a nutrient-cost baseline to compare against a quoted delivered price, not a full input budget.

Regional Supply and Feedstock Dynamics

Most US ammonium sulfate supply is co-produced as a byproduct of caprolactam and other industrial sulfuric-acid-consuming processes, rather than manufactured as a primary product. That co-production model is the direct explanation for the price volatility documented above: when byproduct volumes from those parallel industrial processes shift, ammonium sulfate supply shifts with them regardless of fertilizer demand, which is a different price mechanism than the natural-gas-driven cost curve that governs urea and UAN.

• ⚙️ Byproduct supply: Sulfuric acid, caprolactam, and other chemical manufacturing streams are the dominant US source of fertilizer-grade ammonium sulfate
• 🌍 Sulfur market linkage: Elemental sulfur and sulfuric acid feedstock costs affect regional availability independent of nitrogen fertilizer demand cycles
• 👩‍🌾 Logistics: Delivered cost depends heavily on rail and truck freight from Gulf Coast and industrial-belt production points to inland farm markets
• 📦 Form matters: Bulk granular remains standard for broadacre operations; bagged and liquid forms carry a premium for specialty and turf buyers

Environmental and Regulatory Trends

US nutrient management regulation continues to focus on reducing nitrate leaching into groundwater and surface water, particularly in nutrient-sensitive watersheds tracked under state-level programs and EPA Clean Water Act frameworks. Ammonium sulfate's defined, auditable sulfur content supports growers documenting nutrient management plans, since the S contribution is fixed and does not require the same rate-adjustment guesswork that variable-analysis blended products can involve.

• 📋 Auditability: Fixed 21-24 analysis simplifies nutrient management plan documentation for conservation program compliance
• 🛡️ Leaching mitigation: Subsurface banding reduces nitrate movement to groundwater, relevant in states with nutrient-sensitive watershed rules
• 🧑‍🌾 Precision application: Variable-rate technology adoption is increasing sulfate-S placement accuracy, reducing both over-application cost and runoff risk
• ⚖️ Herbicide stewardship: Glufosinate's role in resistance management (see the market data above) is itself a regulatory-adjacent trend, as extension programs increasingly recommend mode-of-action rotation to slow glyphosate-resistant weed spread

Best Practices: A Verification Checklist

Prices and market sizes in this article will age. The method below does not — use it every planning cycle, regardless of what the numbers above say by the time you read this.

1. Pull a current spot quote, not last quarter's average: Check Intratec's live ammonium sulfate price page before comparing any quoted price against a "market average" — given the $233-$435/MT swing documented above, a stale average will mislead you in either direction.
2. Test soil sulfate-S in the fall, not just spring: Sulfate leaches in sandy or high-rainfall soils; a spring-only test can understate a deficiency that already occurred over winter.
3. Match product form to application method: Confirm whether your program needs solid ammonium sulfate (pre-plant, banded) or liquid ammonium thiosulfate (in-season UAN blend) — they are not interchangeable despite both being sulfur sources.
4. Verify glufosinate rotation timing against label and resistance-management guidance: Check current extension guidance for your state and crop before finalizing a rotation plan, since mode-of-action recommendations shift as resistance patterns change.
5. Request plant-specific CAPEX quotes for any bisulfate/sulfite production project: Generic per-ton industrial construction figures are not reliable for real capital planning — commission a report scoped to your capacity, feedstock, and site.
6. Recalculate cost-per-pound-of-nutrient, not cost-per-ton: Use the calculator above with your own quoted price every time you get a new quote, since the fixed 21-24 analysis means nutrient cost is what actually determines value.

Frequently Asked Questions

Conclusion

The ammonium sulfate market is defined by volatility tied to its byproduct-supply model, not by a single stable price point — the $233-$435 per metric ton range recorded across September to November 2025 is the clearest evidence of that. Ammonium thiosulfate and glufosinate ammonium, by contrast, show steadier multi-year growth trajectories (5.54% and 12.8% CAGR respectively) because they are sized as markets rather than tracked as daily spot commodities. Ammonium bisulfate and ammonium sulfite remain the least transparent of the four, with production-cost data locked behind commissioned industry reports rather than public trackers.

The checklist above — pull a live spot quote, test soil sulfate-S in the fall, match product form to application method, verify herbicide rotation guidance annually, and recalculate cost per pound of nutrient rather than cost per ton — is built to outlast every number printed in this article. Use it, along with the calculator, every time you re-price a program rather than trusting last season's figures.

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