Employee Incentive Plans Inputs and Assumptions Used in Monte Carlo Simulations (Details) - $ / shares	12 Months Ended
Dec. 31, 2017	Dec. 31, 2016	Dec. 31, 2015
Share-based Compensation Arrangement by Share-based Payment Award [Line Items]
Term of awards remaining	2 years 10 months
TSR-Based Performance Shares
Share-based Compensation Arrangement by Share-based Payment Award [Line Items]
Grant date fair value	$ 97.88	$ 93.02	$ 95.68
Grant date stock price	$ 79.69	$ 80.46	$ 75.41
Expected volatility of Kaiser Aluminum	22.74%	17.81%	19.03%
Expected volatility of peer companies	44.19%	41.22%	33.73%
Risk-free interest rate	1.54%	1.01%	0.98%
Dividend yield	2.50%	2.24%	2.12%

The weighted average fair value at grant date for nonvested equity-based awards issued during the period on other than stock (or unit) option plans (for example, phantom stock or unit plan, stock or unit appreciation rights plan, performance target plan).

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- Definition

The estimated dividend rate (a percentage of the share price) to be paid (expected dividends) to holders of the underlying shares over the option's term.

+ References

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- Definition

The estimated measure of the percentage by which a share price is expected to fluctuate during a period. Volatility also may be defined as a probability-weighted measure of the dispersion of returns about the mean. The volatility of a share price is the standard deviation of the continuously compounded rates of return on the share over a specified period. That is the same as the standard deviation of the differences in the natural logarithms of the stock prices plus dividends, if any, over the period.

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- Definition

The risk-free interest rate assumption that is used in valuing an option on its own shares.

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- Definition

Weighted average expected volatility rate of share-based compensation awards.

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- Definition

Line items represent financial concepts included in a table. These concepts are used to disclose reportable information associated with domain members defined in one or many axes to the table.

+ References

No definition available.

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- Definition

Price of a single share of a number of saleable stocks of a company.

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No definition available.

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- Definition

Expected term of share-based compensation awards, in 'PnYnMnDTnHnMnS' format, for example, 'P1Y5M13D' represents the reported fact of one year, five months, and thirteen days.

+ References

Reference 1: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/presentationRef
-Publisher FASB
-Name Accounting Standards Codification
-Topic 718
-SubTopic 10
-Section 50
-Paragraph 2
-Subparagraph (f)(2)(i)
-URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=96867065&loc=d3e5070-113901

Reference 2: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/presentationRef
-Publisher FASB
-Name Accounting Standards Codification
-Topic 718
-SubTopic 10
-Section S99
-Paragraph 1
-Subparagraph (SAB Topic 14.D.2)
-URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=27013229&loc=d3e301413-122809

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