Gold Price by Country Today

Why one ounce of gold costs different amounts around the world

Gold has one wholesale price, set in U.S. dollars per troy ounce, and every national rate on this page starts from that single number. What changes from one border to the next is the stack of costs placed on top of it before a shopper pays.

Big bullion banks in London, futures traders in New York and the exchange in Shanghai are all trading the same metal, and arbitrage keeps their prices within a narrow band of each other. The difference a traveler notices between a gram in Mumbai and a gram in Dubai almost never comes from the metal itself.

The five layers added to the world price

1. Exchange rate. The dollar price is multiplied by the number of local currency units per dollar. Pegged currencies such as the UAE dirham (3.6725), the Saudi riyal (3.75) and the Qatari riyal (3.64) barely move; floating ones like the Indian rupee, Turkish lira or British pound move every trading day.
2. Import duty. Countries that tax gold coming across the border, India being the best-known case, sit permanently above the converted price by roughly the duty rate.
3. VAT or GST. Many governments tax jewelry but exempt investment bars and coins. The EU, the UK, Canada, Australia and Singapore all draw that line, each with its own purity threshold.
4. Making charges. A jeweler’s labor is billed per gram or as a percentage of metal value. On light, intricate pieces it can outweigh every other layer combined.
5. Local benchmarks and dealer premiums. Shanghai runs its own exchange price in yuan, and dealer associations in Karachi, Kathmandu and Dhaka publish their own daily rates that include local supply conditions.

The table above strips out layers two to five on purpose. It shows what the metal is worth in each currency, which is the fairest starting point for any comparison, and the U.S. equivalent is always the gold price today in dollars.

Traditional units that local rates are quoted in

A big share of the world never buys gold by the ounce. Shop boards in South Asia, the Gulf and East Asia use older units that survived because families have measured savings in them for generations.

Units that share a name but not a weight

The trap is that a familiar name can hide a different weight. The Hong Kong tael is 37.429 g, the mainland market tael is 50 g and Taiwan’s is 37.5 g. The mithqal used by Iraqi jewelers is 5 g, while the classical mithqal of Islamic law is about 4.25 g and Iran’s mesghal is 4.608 g. Always confirm grams before comparing two quotes.

For the South Asian unit specifically, our gold price per tola page converts the dollar price directly.

Taxes on gold in major markets

Tax is the layer that changes most between countries, and it usually treats jewelry and investment gold differently. The table lists the rules we can state with confidence; rates change, so check current rules before a large purchase.

Hong Kong has no sales tax or VAT at all, and Qatar and Kuwait have not introduced VAT. That is part of why those markets often look cheap for jewelry.

Comparing countries without fooling yourself

Searches for the “cheapest gold in the world” usually compare numbers that aren’t alike. A fair comparison holds these things constant:

• The same purity. A 21K gram in Riyadh and a 22K gram in Mumbai are different products, about 4% apart in gold content.
• The same form. Bullion, often tax-exempt, can’t be compared with jewelry that carries labor and VAT.
• Tax you can actually reclaim. A tourist refund changes the math; a resident can’t claim it.
• The trip home. Your own country’s customs rules may add duty to what looked like a bargain abroad.
• The resale spread. A market with a low selling price but a steep buyback deduction may cost more over the life of the piece.

A quick way to convert any quote

1. Find the local price for one unit and note its weight in grams and its karat.
2. Divide by the grams to get a local price per gram.
3. Divide by the karat fraction (0.916 for 22K, 0.875 for 21K) to get the implied pure-gold price.
4. Divide by the exchange rate to put it in dollars.
5. Compare with the dollar price per gram of pure gold. The gap is duty, tax, labor and premium.

The raw benchmark behind every figure here is the gold spot price for immediate delivery.

Currency traders quote the same thing as a pair, and our XAU/USD page explains how to read it.

Two markets show the extremes well. In Dubai the peg and a deep wholesale trade keep shop rates close to spot.

In India, duty and GST sit on top before a jeweler adds any labor.

Karat preferences by region

Each market also has a favorite purity, which is why the karat columns differ from page to page. South Asia buys 22K for jewelry and 24K for coins. The Gulf and Egypt lean toward 21K. China and Hong Kong prefer 999 pure gold jewelry. The UK and Australia sell a lot of 9ct, while North America settles on 10K and 14K. A quote only makes sense once you know which of these it refers to.