Use value

The use value is the utility of a thing that manifests in use or consumption. The use value forms a contradiction with the exchange value. Consider quality versus quantity. Use value is a commodity's qualitative traits. The ability of a coat to keep a person warm, of water to quench thirst or of a comic book to entertain the mind. These different qualities embody a commodity's use value. This contrasts with the exchange value of a commodity which embodies its quantitative traits.

Use value was first formulated by Karl Marx.

"The utility of a thing makes it a use value. But this utility is not a thing of air. Being limited by the physical properties of the commodity, it has no existence apart from that commodity. A commodity, such as iron, corn, or a diamond, is therefore, so far as it is a material thing, a use value, something useful. This property of a commodity is independent of the amount of labour required to appropriate its useful qualities. When treating of use value, we always assume to be dealing with definite quantities, such as dozens of watches, yards of linen, or tons of iron. The use values of commodities furnish the material for a special study, that of the commercial knowledge of commodities. Use values become a reality only by use or consumption: they also constitute the substance of all wealth, whatever may be the social form of that wealth. In the form of society we are about to consider, they are, in addition, the material depositories of exchange value."

— Karl Marx, Capital Vol. 1