We consider quantum metrology with several copies of bipartite and multipartite quantum states. We identify a large class of states that become maximally useful for metrology in the limit of infinite number of copies. The maximally achievable metrological usefulness is attained exponentially fast in the number of copies. We show that, on the other hand, pure entangled states with even a small amount of white noise do not become maximally useful even in the limit of infinite number of copies. We also make general statements about the usefulness of a single copy of pure entangled states. We show that the multiqubit states states presented in Hyllus et al. [Phys. Rev. A 82, 012337 (2010)], which are not more useful than separable states, become more useful if we embed the qubits locally in qutrits. We discuss the relation of our scheme to error correction, and possible use for quantum information processing in a nosy environment.