Gold Spot Price Today

How a spot gold number is calculated

Spot gold is the price for one troy ounce of gold at least 995 fine, for delivery in London two business days after the trade. The figure you see on any website is built from live dealer quotes or from the nearest futures contract, since there is no single exchange where spot gold trades.

That second point surprises people. The London market, where most spot gold changes hands, is over the counter: banks and dealers trade directly with one another. Data vendors collect their bid and ask quotes and publish a composite. Other sites read the front-month COMEX futures contract, which trades within a few dollars of spot; this site shows a real-time spot price. How our number is sourced is set out on the methodology page.

Why futures and spot usually differ a little

A futures contract is a promise to deliver gold later. Holding gold until then costs money in lost interest, so futures normally trade slightly above spot, a pattern called contango. The gap is roughly the interest cost for the time until delivery, minus what gold could earn if lent out. Traders call the gap between New York futures and London spot the EFP, short for exchange for physical.

Usually the EFP is small and stable. In March 2020 it widened sharply, as grounded flights and closed refineries made it hard to move bars between London and New York. It was a reminder that the two prices are tied together by physical metal, not by a formula.

The last row is the one most “closing price” reports use; the gold closing price page explains how it is determined.

Futures have their own contract sizes, margin rules and delivery months, set out on the gold futures page.

Is there an official gold spot price?

No government or exchange publishes an official spot price. The closest thing to an official reference is the LBMA Gold Price, which replaced the London gold fixing in 2015 and is run by ICE Benchmark Administration. The fixing it replaced dates back to September 1919. Contracts that need a single agreed daily price, such as mine sales or fund valuations, usually name this benchmark rather than spot.

Bid, ask and the spread inside a spot quote

Every spot quote really contains two prices. The bid is what a dealer will pay for an ounce, and the ask is what a dealer will charge. The headline number on a price website is usually the last trade or the midpoint between the two.

In busy hours the spot spread is very tight, often well under a dollar an ounce. It widens when trading is thin: late Friday, around holidays, during the daily futures break and in the first minutes after the Sunday evening open. A spot price quoted at 5:30 p.m. ET on a Friday is a less precise number than one quoted at 10 a.m. on a Tuesday.

How dealers turn spot into a retail price

1. The dealer’s system takes a live spot or futures feed, usually the ask side.
2. A premium is added for each product, either as a fixed dollar amount per ounce or as a percentage of spot.
3. When you place an order, the price is locked at that moment. The deal is binding even if spot moves before your payment clears.
4. Payment method can change the price. Wire and check prices are commonly lower than card prices because card fees are passed on.
5. When you sell back, the dealer starts from the bid side of spot and subtracts its buy margin.

“Spot plus” and “at spot” offers

Dealers often describe prices as spot plus a dollar amount, such as “spot + $X per ounce.” That wording tells you the premium directly, which makes comparisons easier than a sticker price. Offers to sell “at spot” exist, but they are typically limited to one coin per customer, first orders only or a specific payment method. The overall buying process is covered on the where to buy gold page.

Gold and silver spot prices side by side

Silver, platinum and palladium follow the same spot logic as gold: a price per troy ounce of refined metal for near-term delivery. Silver trades on COMEX alongside gold, while platinum and palladium futures trade on NYMEX, also part of CME Group.

The differences show up in premiums. Silver is worth far less per ounce than gold, so the fixed costs of minting, shipping and storing a coin make up a much larger share of its price. A premium that looks small on a gold coin can equal a large percentage of a silver coin’s value. All four metals are shown together on the precious metals prices page.

Spot in other currencies

In currency markets, gold carries its own code, XAU, which stands for one troy ounce of gold. The spot price in dollars is written XAU/USD, in euros XAU/EUR and so on. Every non-dollar spot price is essentially the dollar price multiplied by that day’s exchange rate. When the dollar falls against the euro, gold can rise in dollars while barely moving in euros, and the reverse is just as common. The XAU/USD page shows how the currency pair is quoted and traded.

When a spot quote looks wrong

Spot prices from different sources should agree within a few dollars. If one looks off, one of these is usually the reason:

• A stale weekend price. From Friday afternoon to Sunday evening, every source shows the last trade, and some show the Friday settlement instead.
• A delayed feed. Many free sources lag the market by up to 15 minutes, which on a fast day can mean tens of dollars.
• A contract roll. Continuous futures series jump when they switch from an expiring month to the next one.
• A different currency or unit. A price per gram or in another currency can be mistaken for a dollar-per-ounce quote.
• A chart showing futures while the header shows spot, or the other way round.
• A holiday on one side of the Atlantic. When U.S. markets are shut and London is open, or the reverse, trading is thin and quotes can drift apart.

Spot terms in brief

• Loco London: gold held in London vaults, the location that standard spot prices assume.
• T+2: settlement two business days after the trade date, the spot convention.
• Front month: the futures delivery month with the nearest expiry that is still actively traded.
• Good Delivery: the London standard for large bars of 350 to 430 troy ounces and at least 995 fineness.

The spot figure also moves on every page of this site, because all our per-gram, per-karat and coin values start from it. For the broader picture of what that number means in dollars on a given day, see today’s gold price on the home page.