A cone shaped compression spring that has a tapered body with a large outer diameter at the base and a small outer diameter a the top. These stock conical (tapered) springs are made this way to provide stability when a regular compression spring buckles or bends. Stock conical (tapered) springs are also used to provide more travel. If the coils are correctly designed, the spring will have a telescope effect; making the spirals go one inside the other, thus having a minimal solid height.

Tapered springs are characterized not only by their shape, but also by the fact that they are more laterally stable and less liable to buckle than regular compression springs. There is a necessary increase in the applied force to compress a tapered spring due to the flexibility of the larger-diameter coils causing progressive contact with one another. This characteristic can be a plus for spring-supported vibrating objects by reducing the resonant (bouncing) amplitudes commonly found in constant-diameter, spring-supported systems. Probably its most beneficial characteristic is that it can be designed so that each active coil fits within the next, with the solid height equal to one or two thicknesses of wire.