What was the purchase price of the Louisiana Purchase in 1803?

The United States paid $15 million for the Louisiana Purchase in 1803.

The deal transferred approximately 828,000 square miles of territory from France to the United States. The lands stretched west of the Mississippi River and more than doubled the size of the young republic, although the exact boundaries were not immediately clear.

President Thomas Jefferson authorized negotiations after concern about access to the port of New Orleans. Napoleon Bonaparte’s government unexpectedly offered the entire Louisiana territory rather than New Orleans alone, partly because France needed money and had lost its position in Saint-Domingue.

The $15 million price covered the territorial transfer, while the agreement also settled certain American claims against France. The purchase led to exploration by the Lewis and Clark expedition and intensified later debates over slavery, Indigenous sovereignty, and the political future of western lands.