Abstract Metals present one of the major groups of materials used for all kinds of different applications in various environments. Often those environments pose a threat regarding the stability and preservation of metals and they undergo corrosion. Corrosion processes lead to several consequences that can have a detrimental effect on the environment such as metals release due to dissolution, leakage of various chemicals that are stored in reservoirs or transported via pipelines. These processes should be diminished, and one of the ways of metals protection is the application of corrosion inhibitors. There is a great number of the potential inhibitors tested, however, some of them have undesired effects on the environment and health. Purines present bioorganic compounds that show a tendency to interact with metals and form complexes that can adsorb on the surface of metal and that characteristic indicates that potentially they can efficiently inhibit corrosion. This is confirmed within numerous studies and those results are presented and discussed. Most of them are done using copper with the addition of purine or adenine, however, other derivatives are studied as well. Common conclusion is that the increase in the number of heteroatoms and molecular size leads to inhibition efficiency increase.