The construction and electrochemical response characteristics of poly vinyl chloride (PVC) membrane sensors for the determination of copper were described. The sensors are based on using of ethamsylate as an ionophore and dioctylphethalate (DOP) as a plasticizer in the PVC matrix. Conventional and graphite membrane sensors were prepared and the performance characteristics are evaluated according to IUPAC recommendations, reveal fast, stable and linear response for copper over the concentration range 1×10−6-1×10−2 M and 7×10-5 -1×10-2 M with cationic slopes of 29.5 and 27.8 mV per concentration decade at pH 5 for conventional and graphite membrane sensors respectively. The potentiometric selectivity data revealed no interference from common cations. The direct potentiometric determination of copper using the proposed sensors gave average recoveries of 99.89 ± 0.9 and 100.04 ± 1.1 for the conventional and graphite sensors, respectively. The sensors are used for direct measurement of copper content in industrial waste water, metal alloys samples from copper factories and pharmaceutical formulations. The developed method was found to be simple, accurate and precise when compared with a reported atomic absorption method.