Precious Metals Prices

Spot is the global wholesale price for one troy ounce of pure metal, set continuously by the bullion markets in London, New York, Zurich, Hong Kong, and Tokyo. The London Bullion Market Association publishes a twice-daily reference price for gold, silver, platinum, and palladium that the rest of the trade aligns to.

Anything sold to a consumer carries a retail premium on top of spot. Bullion coins typically trade at 3 to 8 percent above spot, fine jewelry at 100 to 1000 percent above spot once labor, design, and brand are added, and small bars at 1 to 4 percent above spot. The number on this page is the raw metal value, with no premium applied.

Gold is alloyed with other metals for hardness, since pure gold is too soft for daily wear. The karat number describes how many parts out of 24 are pure gold. The remaining parts are usually copper, silver, palladium, or zinc, which also tune the color of the alloy.

• 24k99.9%+Pure gold. Soft, deep yellow, used for high-end Asian jewelry and bullion.
• 22k91.7%Standard for South Asian and Middle Eastern jewelry. Rich color, still soft.
• 18k75.0%The luxury jewelry standard worldwide. Warm color, hard enough for daily wear.
• 14k58.3%The most common karat in the United States. Durable and affordable.
• 10k41.7%The legal minimum to be sold as gold in the US. Pale color, very hard.

Silver follows a separate convention based on a thousand parts. Sterling silver is .925, meaning 925 parts of every thousand are pure silver. Fine silver is .999. Britannia silver is .958, used in some flatware. Coin silver is .900, mostly historical.

Platinum is most often quoted as 950, meaning 95 percent pure, with iridium, ruthenium, or cobalt as the alloying metal. The remaining 5 percent gives the alloy its hardness and workability without changing its appearance. Pure 999 platinum is also seen in some markets, particularly Japan.

Yellow gold, white gold, and rose gold all start from the same pure gold and differ only in the alloy mix. The karat purity stays the same; what changes is the color and the metal content of the remaining share.

• Yellow gold

  Gold + copper + silver

  The classic warm tone. The copper gives it depth, the silver lightens it back toward neutral.

• White gold

  Gold + nickel or palladium

  Rhodium-plated for the cool white finish. The plating wears and is replated periodically.

• Rose gold

  Gold + a higher share of copper

  The pink shade comes from the copper. Higher karat rose gold is a softer pink.

• Sterling silver

  Silver .925 + copper

  The standard for jewelry. The copper hardens it without changing the bright finish.

• 950 platinum

  Platinum + iridium, ruthenium, or cobalt

  Heavier and harder-wearing than gold. Holds prong setting longer and resists scratch better.

Precious metals trade in troy ounces, not the regular ounces a kitchen scale uses. A troy ounce is 31.1035 grams. A regular avoirdupois ounce is 28.3495 grams. The two are nearly ten percent apart, which is enough to throw off a calculation by hundreds of dollars on a heavy ring.

Refiners and pawnshops often quote in pennyweights, written dwt. One pennyweight is 1.5551738 grams, or 1/20 of a troy ounce. The unit dates to medieval England, where it was the weight of an actual silver penny. The calculator above accepts grams, troy ounces, and pennyweights.

1 troy ounce  =  31.1035 g       =  20 dwt
1 gram        =  0.03215 troy oz =  0.6430 dwt
1 dwt         =  1.5552 g        =  0.05 troy oz

Spot prices respond to a small set of macroeconomic and industry signals. The biggest single driver, especially for gold and silver, is the strength of the US dollar. Metals are priced in dollars on global markets, so a weaker dollar lifts the metal price even when nothing else has changed.

• Real interest rates. Lower or negative real rates make gold more attractive as a store of value because cash and bonds lose purchasing power.
• Central bank buying. China, Russia, India, and Turkey have been net buyers of gold since 2010, which has provided a structural floor under the price.
• Industrial demand. Silver, platinum, and palladium are heavily industrial. Solar panel demand drives silver, autocatalysts drive platinum and palladium, and electric vehicles are reshaping both.
• Mine supply. New mines take a decade to bring online, so supply is slow to respond to demand. Production disruptions in South Africa, Russia, or Peru can move the price within hours.
• Geopolitical risk. Wars, sanctions, and currency crises pull capital toward gold and silver as safe havens, often ahead of any material change in supply or demand.
• Inflation expectations. Markets price gold partly as an inflation hedge, so rising expected inflation tends to lift gold even before realized inflation does.

Selling jewelry to a refiner or pawnshop nets less than the spot value of its metal. Refiners pay 80 to 95 percent of the calculated metal value, with the discount covering melting, assaying, and the dealer's margin. The exact rate depends on the karat, the volume, and the dealer's relationship with the final refiner.

For a quick scrap estimate, weigh the piece on a gram scale, identify the karat from the hallmark, and multiply by the per-gram value on this page. That gives the upper bound. The offer you actually receive is typically 80 to 90 percent of that figure for gold, slightly higher for platinum, and somewhat lower for silver because refining cost is a larger share of a low-value metal.

Pieces with intact branding, signatures, or original boxes are often worth more sold whole to a jeweler or collector than melted for scrap. The trade calls this resale value, and it can be several times the metal value for a recognizable piece.

The spot prices come from a single upstream feed aligned with the LBMA benchmark. A small refresher job on our backend fetches each metal's spot price every few minutes and writes it to our market_links table. Per-karat and per-alloy values are derived from the spots using fixed purity ratios, so the whole tree updates atomically when a spot changes.

Per-gram pure  =  spot_usd_oz / 31.1035

Gold 24k       =  per-gram pure
Gold 22k       =  per-gram pure  ·  22 / 24
Gold 18k       =  per-gram pure  ·  18 / 24
Gold 14k       =  per-gram pure  ·  14 / 24
Gold 10k       =  per-gram pure  ·  10 / 24

Silver fine    =  per-gram pure  ·  0.999
Silver sterling=  per-gram pure  ·  0.925

Platinum 950   =  per-gram pure  ·  0.95

The page itself is server-rendered against the latest values in the table, so the figure you see is the same one stored on our database at render time. There is no client-side fetch or hidden delay.

How often does the precious metals price update on this page?

Spot values come from a live market feed and are refreshed every few minutes during trading hours. The page itself is rebuilt every five minutes, which means the figure you see is at most a few minutes behind the live market.

What is the spot price of gold?

Spot is the global wholesale price for one troy ounce of pure gold, quoted continuously across London, New York, and Asian markets. It is the reference all other gold prices are derived from. Retailers and refiners then add or subtract a premium for their service.

How do I read 14k, 18k, 22k, and 24k gold prices?

Karat measures the share of pure gold in the alloy out of 24 parts. 24k is pure (99.9%+), 22k is 91.7%, 18k is 75%, 14k is 58.3%, and 10k is 41.7%. The per-gram price for each karat is the spot price scaled by that share.

What is the difference between sterling silver and fine silver?

Sterling silver is .925 (92.5% pure) alloyed with copper for hardness and is the standard for jewelry. Fine silver is .999 (99.9% pure) and is used for bullion and a small share of artisanal jewelry. Sterling trades at roughly 92.5% of the spot per-gram value, fine silver at roughly 99.9%.

Why is platinum often cheaper than gold per ounce in 2026?

Platinum demand is heavily industrial, especially for catalytic converters, and that demand has softened as electric vehicles take share. Gold demand is driven by jewelry, central bank reserves, and investment. The two markets respond to different forces, and platinum has traded below gold since 2015.

Are the spot prices in USD per troy ounce or per gram?

All four metals are quoted on global markets in US dollars per troy ounce. We display both ounce and gram prices on this page; the conversion is one troy ounce equals 31.1035 grams.

Can I sell my jewelry at the spot price shown here?

Refiners typically pay 80% to 95% of the calculated metal value for scrap. The discount covers their refining cost and risk. Polished, branded, or signed pieces frequently sell above scrap value to a jeweler or collector who keeps the piece intact.

Does the price include the cost of making a piece of jewelry?

No. The figures on this page are the raw metal value at the wholesale market price. Finished jewelry adds labor, design, brand premium, gem setting, and retailer margin on top, often two to ten times the metal value depending on the piece.

What is a troy ounce versus a regular ounce?

A troy ounce is 31.1035 grams and is the standard unit for precious metals. A regular ounce, sometimes called an avoirdupois ounce, is 28.3495 grams and is what kitchen scales use. Confusing the two will overstate the metal weight by about ten percent.

Why do gold prices rise during economic uncertainty?

Gold has held purchasing power through wars, currency crises, and inflation cycles for thousands of years. When investors lose confidence in fiat currencies or stock markets, capital flows into gold, which lifts the price. The reverse happens when growth and rates are stable.