We measured the field profiles near the surface of a coated conductor (CC) by using the scanning Hall probe method. The external currents, represented by I a, or the external fields, represented by H a, were applied during the measurements. The field was applied in the normal direction with respect to the tape surface. The measured field profiles could be expressed by H( x, X a), where the variable, X a, was either I a or H a. The x-axis was parallel to the in-plane transverse direction of the CC tape. The CC tape was fabricated by the IBAD-PLD method. The applied field (current), H a ( I a), was decreased stepwise from H peak to − H peak (from I peak to − I peak). From H( x, X a), we calculated the current profile, J( x, X a), by the iterative inversion method. From J( x, X a) and the corresponding flux densities, B( x, X a) we calculated the AC current loss, Q C( I peak), and the AC magnetic loss, Q M( H peak), for various values of I peak and H peak, respectively. The characteristic functions were defined by f C = π Q C / μ 0 I c 2 and f M = π Q M / μ 0 I c 2 , where I c is the critical current. We found that the calculated values of f C ( f M) were similar to the experimental values of f C ( f M) which were directly measured for the IBAD-PLD CCs. On the other hand, the values of f C ( f M) were smaller than (larger than) the values estimated from the experimentally observed Q C ( Q M) in RABiTS ™-MOD CCs.