Gold Price per Ounce Today

What “per ounce” means in a gold quote

The price of gold per ounce always refers to one troy ounce, 31.1035 grams, of pure gold. It describes the fine gold content, not what a coin or bar weighs on a scale, and that distinction trips up more buyers than the troy-versus-kitchen ounce difference does.

A price of $2,500 per ounce means $2,500 for 31.1035 grams of 100% gold. Whether that gold arrives as a 22-karat coin, a four-nines bar or a lump of scrap doesn’t change the quote. It changes only how much metal you need to hold to get one fine ounce. You can check the ounce figure against the live gold price on our home page at any time; this page is about what sits behind that number.

Fine weight and gross weight

The American Gold Eagle shows the distinction clearly. The 1-ounce coin is 22 karat, 91.67% gold, and weighs 33.931 grams. Only 31.1035 grams of that is gold; the rest is copper and silver added for hardness. The American Buffalo, struck in 99.99% gold, weighs 31.108 grams. Both contain exactly one troy ounce of gold and both have the same melt value. Details for each coin are on the American Gold Eagle page.

Coin collectors and dealers shorten fine weight to AGW, actual gold weight. If a listing gives only the gross weight, find the AGW before you compare it with the ounce price.

Fractional ounces and what they really contain

Gold Eagles also come in half, quarter and tenth-ounce sizes, and the fine gold in each is exactly that fraction of a troy ounce. The tenth-ounce Eagle weighs 3.393 grams and holds 3.11 grams of gold.

The catch is the premium. A dealer’s cost of striking, handling and shipping a coin barely changes with its size, so smaller coins carry a much higher premium per ounce of gold. Four quarter-ounce coins almost always cost more than one 1-ounce coin, even though the gold is identical.

Pricing a fractional coin against the ounce price

1. Find the coin’s fine gold content: 0.5, 0.25 or 0.1 troy ounce.
2. Multiply by the ounce price. At an example price of $2,500, a quarter-ounce coin holds $625 of gold.
3. Take the dealer’s asking price and subtract that melt value to get the premium in dollars.
4. Divide the premium by the fine ounces (0.25 here) to see the premium per ounce of gold.
5. Compare that per-ounce premium with the premium on a 1-ounce coin before deciding which size fits your budget.

1 oz gold bar or 1 oz coin?

A 1-ounce bar and a 1-ounce bullion coin contain the same gold, so their melt values match to the cent. Coins usually cost more because they are struck by national mints as legal tender, with detailed designs and security features, while bars are simpler to make. When selling, government coins are recognized at a glance by almost every dealer, which can narrow the gap between the buyback price and spot.

The American Buffalo is sold mainly in the 1-ounce size, while fractional Buffalos have appeared only in limited issues. Specifications are listed on the American Gold Buffalo page.

Converting ounces for scales and scrap

A troy ounce sits inside a small family of units, and the ratios are fixed by definition. Once you know them, you can move between any two quotes without a calculator app.

A kitchen-scale example

Say a box of 14K scrap reads 5.0 ounces on a kitchen scale. That is 5.0 avoirdupois ounces, or 141.75 grams.

1. Convert to troy ounces: 141.75 ÷ 31.1035 = 4.557 troy oz.
2. Apply 14K purity: 4.557 × 0.5833 = 2.658 troy oz of fine gold.
3. At an example price of $2,500, that is about $6,646 in melt value.

Read the scale as troy ounces by mistake and you would put the gold content at 5.0 × 0.5833 = 2.92 ounces, about 10% too high. The gold price calculator accepts grams, pennyweights and ounces, so you can skip the conversion altogether.

Why gold is weighed in troy ounces at all

The troy system is usually traced to the medieval trade fairs of Troyes in France. England used troy weight for coinage and precious metals for centuries, and the U.S. Mint adopted a troy pound as its standard for coinage in 1828. When everyday American commerce settled on avoirdupois weight, precious metals kept the older system, and the world bullion market never changed. Countries that went metric adopted the gram for jewelry but kept the troy ounce for bullion, so even a Swiss kilo bar is priced from a dollar-per-ounce quote.

Ounce abbreviations that mean different things

• ozt or t oz is a troy ounce, the only ounce used for bullion prices.
• oz on its own usually means troy ounce on a coin or bar, but avoirdupois ounce on a scale readout or a shipping label.
• fine oz or oz AGW means the pure gold content, the number that ties to the price per ounce.
• A price “per oz” for silver, platinum or palladium uses the same troy ounce as gold.

How much was gold an ounce in earlier decades

The per-ounce price only became a free-market number in the 1970s. For about a century before 1933, the U.S. dollar was defined in gold at roughly $20.67 per troy ounce. The Gold Reserve Act of 1934 reset the official price to $35, where it stayed for dealings between governments until President Nixon closed the gold window in August 1971.

Private Americans regained the right to own gold bullion on December 31, 1974. From then on, the ounce price moved with supply, demand and the dollar: $850 at the London fix on January 21, 1980, then a long decline and a new peak around $1,900 in 2011, then a first trip above $2,000 during the 2020 pandemic. Year-by-year figures are on the gold price history page.

Ounce terms in plain English

• Spot per ounce: the wholesale price for one fine troy ounce for immediate delivery.
• Premium per ounce: the dealer’s markup over spot, divided by the fine ounces in the product.
• Bid: the price a dealer pays you per ounce; ask: the price a dealer charges.
• Melt value: fine ounces times spot, the floor for any bullion product.