Rhenium metal is expensive and rarely used alone, and it is mainly used as an additive to improve the creep resistance of high temperature alloys.

Rhenium metal is silvery white and extremely hard; it resists wear and corrosion very well and has one of the highest melting points of the elements. The melting point of rhenium, 3,180 °C (5,756 °F), is exceeded only by those of tungsten and carbon. The metal powder slowly oxidizes in air above 150 °C (300 °F) and rapidly at higher temperatures to form the yellow heptoxide, Re2O7. The metal is not soluble in hydrochloric acid and dissolves only slowly in other acids.

The metal and its alloys have found various applications as turbine blades in fighter-jet engines, fountain pen points, high-temperature thermocouples (with platinum), catalysts, electrical contact points, and instrument-bearing points and in electrical components, such as in flashbulb filaments as an alloy with tungsten.