Gold Price Calculator

How the calculator turns weight into dollars

The value of any gold item is weight in grams × purity × the price of one gram of pure gold. Everything the calculator does is a version of that formula. It converts your unit to grams, applies the karat as a decimal, and uses the live spot price per troy ounce divided by 31.1035 as the price per gram.

1. Convert the weight to grams, using the factors in the table below.
2. Convert the karat to a decimal: karat ÷ 24. 14K becomes 0.583, 22K becomes 0.917, and 24K is entered as 0.999.
3. Multiply grams by that decimal to get grams of pure gold. The calculator shows this as “pure gold content.”
4. Divide the spot price per troy ounce by 31.1035 to get the price per gram of pure gold.
5. Multiply the pure gold grams by that per-gram price. The result is the full metal value, with nothing deducted.

Why 24K is entered as 99.9%

The 24K option uses 0.999, the most common fineness for pure gold bars and jewelry. Bars and coins stamped 999.9 contain 0.09% more gold, which on a one-ounce coin is less than three dollars at the example price. For a kilobar the gap is larger, so for big bars you can divide the calculator’s result by 0.999 and multiply by 0.9999 to be exact.

How to calculate the per ounce price yourself

Going the other way is just as simple. To find what a troy ounce of any karat is worth, multiply the spot price by the karat decimal. At an example spot of $3,000, a troy ounce of 18K is worth $2,250 in gold, and a troy ounce of 10K about $1,250. Per gram, divide those results by 31.1035.

The spot price itself comes from the wholesale market and changes throughout the trading day; the calculator uses the same figure shown as the live gold price on the home page, with its time stamp under the result.

Unit conversions behind every result

The calculator accepts six units. Each one is converted to grams first, so an error in the unit is the most common way to get a wrong answer.

Units the calculator doesn’t take, and how to convert them

• Avoirdupois ounce (kitchen scale): 28.3495 grams. Enter the weight in grams instead.
• Troy pound: 12 troy ounces, or 373.24 grams. It is rarely used today but appears in older references.
• Avoirdupois pound: 453.59 grams, or about 14.58 troy ounces. This is the pound meant by “how much is a pound of gold worth.”
• Baht (Thailand): about 15.2 grams for gold, sold at 96.5% purity.
• Tael (Hong Kong): about 37.4 grams.

The tola row matters for families from South Asia and the Gulf; the gold price per tola page covers that unit in depth.

The grain, 1/480 of a troy ounce, is mostly used for small items and dental gold; the gold price per grain page explains it.

Worked examples, from a grain to a kilo

All of these use an example spot price of $3,000 per troy ounce, so the ratios are easy to follow. Put in the live price to get today’s figures.

A one-ounce American Gold Eagle

This is the classic calculator mistake. The Eagle is 22K, and it weighs 33.931 grams. Enter 33.931 grams at 22K and the pure gold content comes out at 31.10 grams, one full troy ounce, worth $3,000. Enter “1 troy ounce at 22K” instead and you get 0.917 ounce, about $2,750, understating the coin by one-twelfth. With coins, either enter the gross weight at the coin’s karat or enter the stated fine gold at 24K. The American Gold Eagle page lists the weights for every size.

A 10-tola bar

A 10-tola bar weighs 116.64 grams and is usually 999 fine. Pure gold: 116.64 × 0.999 = 116.52 grams, worth about $11,239 at the example price.

Enter it as 116.64 grams at 24K. If you only know that it is “10 tola,” choose tola as the unit and enter 10; the calculator converts it to the same 116.64 grams. Bars stamped 999.9 are worth about a dollar more per tola at this price.

A pound of gold

An avoirdupois pound is 453.59 grams, or 14.583 troy ounces. As pure gold, that is worth $43,750 at the example price. A troy pound, 12 troy ounces, would be $36,000. The difference is why the question “how much is a pound of gold worth” needs the unit spelled out.

A kilobar

One kilogram is 32.1507 troy ounces. At 999.9 fine, that is about $96,443 at the example price. The gold price per kilo page shows the live figure.

A 22K necklace weighed in grams

A 45-gram 22K necklace contains 45 × 0.9167 = 41.25 grams of pure gold, about $3,979 at the example price. If the necklace has a hook clasp in a lower karat, or stones, the real figure is lower, which is why a jeweler’s test and a net weight beat the gross reading.

A single grain

One grain of pure gold is 1/480 of a troy ounce, or $6.25 at the example price. Dental crowns and small scrap are often in the tens of grains, which is why some buyers price them this way.

What the result includes, and what it leaves out

The number the calculator produces is the metal value: what the gold inside the item is worth at the spot price. It is the correct starting point for any gold question, but it is rarely the price you’ll pay or receive.

Gold to USD, and other currencies

The calculator works in U.S. dollars because gold is priced in dollars worldwide. To convert a result to another currency, multiply the dollar value by the day’s exchange rate. Local prices abroad can still differ from that product, because of import duties, sales taxes and local premiums, so treat the converted figure as the metal value, not the shop price.

Common input mistakes

• Using gross weight for jewelry with stones. Remove or subtract the stones first.
• Entering kitchen-scale ounces as troy ounces, which overstates the value by about 10%.
• Picking 24K for bullion stamped 22K, or the reverse.
• Entering a coin’s face value or its “1 oz” label instead of its weight.
• Forgetting that gold-filled and plated items contain only a small fraction of their weight in gold.

If you are selling jewelry and want an estimate of the offer rather than the metal value, the scrap gold calculator adds a buyer percentage to the same math.