A catalyst of Ag with alumina has been widely used for the decomposition of odorous ammonia. In order to meet cost effectiveness, copper was added with five different doping ratios of Ag/Cu in this work, and NH 3 decomposition was examined at 150-400 C. Experimental results show that the catalyst doped with only Cu shows very weak potential to oxidize NH 3 despite its excellent selectivity for nitrogen molecules than NO or N 2 O at temperatures over 300 C. Analysis by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy indicates that Ag 0 is the major chemical functionality that determines the decomposition rate of NH 3 at low temperature, e.g., 200 C, while Ag + and Ag 2+ are efficient at higher temperatures. Among the five segregated copper functionalities, only Cu 2p a/2 appeared to be favorable for the activity of Ag particles. It was found from the experimental results that Ag/Cu = 1:9 could provide a cost-effective combination for the low temperature regime.