A phosphate, an inorganic chemical, is a salt of phosphoric acid. In organic chemistry, a phosphate, or organophosphate, is an ester of phosphoric acid. Organic phosphates are important in biochemistry and biogeochemistry or ecology. Inorganic phosphates are mined to obtain phosphorus for use in agriculture and industry. At elevated temperatures in the solid state, phosphates can condense to form pyrophosphates.

The phosphate ion is a polyatomic ion with the empirical formula PO3−
4 and a molar mass of 94.97 g/mol. It consists of one central phosphorus atom surrounded by four oxygen atoms in a tetrahedral arrangement. The phosphate ion carries a negative three formal charge and is the conjugate base of the hydrogen phosphate ion, HPO2−
4, which is the conjugate base of H₂PO−
4, the dihydrogen phosphate ion, which in turn is the conjugate base of H₃PO₄, phosphoric acid. The phosphate ion is a hypervalent molecule (the phosphorus atom has 10 electrons in its valence shell). A phosphate salt forms when a positively charged ion attaches to the negatively charged oxygen atoms of the ion, forming an ionic compound. Many phosphates are not soluble in water at standard temperature and pressure. The sodium, potassium, rubidium, caesium and ammonium phosphates are all water soluble. Most other phosphates are only slightly soluble or are insoluble in water. As a rule, the hydrogen and dihydrogen phosphates are slightly more soluble than the corresponding phosphates. The pyrophosphates are mostly water soluble.