Gold Price: Frequently Asked Questions
Straight answers to the questions people actually search for around gold pricing, purity and jewellery premiums.
+What is the gold spot price?
The spot price is what one troy ounce of unallocated, 24-karat (fine) gold trades for right now in the wholesale market, for immediate settlement. It is the reference number every other gold price, jewellery, coins, karat-adjusted rates, is built from.
+Why is jewellery priced above the spot price?
A jeweller's price adds a making charge (labour), a dealer premium, and sometimes tax and a wastage allowance for cutting and casting loss, on top of the raw metal value implied by spot. The gap between spot and the counter price is not profit alone; a meaningful part of it is real production cost.
+What is a troy ounce, and how is it different from a regular ounce?
A troy ounce is 31.1034768 grams, used for precious metals. A regular (avoirdupois) ounce, the one used for food or body weight, is 28.35 grams. Confusing the two understates a gold weight by about 10%.
+What does karat mean for gold purity?
Karat states gold purity out of 24 parts. 24K is pure gold, priced at the spot price. 22K is 91.67% gold. 18K is 75%. 14K is 58.33%. 10K is 41.67%. The remainder is alloy metal, usually silver, copper or zinc, added for colour, hardness or cost.
+What actually moves the gold price day to day?
Real (inflation-adjusted) interest rates and the US dollar are the two steadiest drivers, since gold pays no yield and is priced in dollars globally. On top of that, central-bank buying, safe-haven demand during geopolitical or financial stress, and gold-ETF flows add shorter-term swings.
+Is gold a good hedge against inflation?
Over long windows, gold has broadly kept pace with or outpaced inflation, but not smoothly or every year. See the gold-vs-inflation comparison on this site for the actual indexed chart and the real, inflation-adjusted annualised return over any period.
+How many grams are in a tola of gold?
A tola is 11.66381 grams, about 0.375 of a troy ounce. It is a traditional weight unit still used for pricing gold in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh.
+Does this site show a live, real-time gold price?
Yes. The price updates about once a minute and shows the time of its last update. See About & methodology for where it comes from.