Today's gold price per gram
Pure gold is $141.02 a gram at the current benchmark, which is $4,386.25 a troy ounce divided by 31.1034768. The London price behind it was set on . Nothing you own is likely to be pure, so the row that matters is the one matching the stamp on your piece.
| purity | stamp | per gram | per dwt | per troy oz |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 24k | 999 | $140.88 | $219.09 | $4,381 |
| 22k | 916 | $129.27 | $201.04 | $4,020 |
| 21k | 875 | $123.39 | $191.90 | $3,837 |
| 20k | 833 | $117.52 | $182.76 | $3,655 |
| 18k | 750 | $105.77 | $164.48 | $3,289 |
| 14k | 585 | $82.26 | $127.93 | $2,558 |
| 12k | 500 | $70.51 | $109.66 | $2,193 |
| 10k | 417 | $58.76 | $91.38 | $1,827 |
| 9k | 375 | $52.88 | $82.24 | $1,644 |
| 8k | 333 | $47.01 | $73.10 | $1,462 |
Where the gold price has been
The benchmark moves every trading day, and a melt value moves with it. The chart below is the London close going back as far as the range you pick, which is the context a single number on its own cannot give you.
LBMA benchmark closes, one point per trading day. The benchmark is set once each London afternoon, so the last point is the most recent close rather than a live tick.
Why your gold is not 24k
Karat is a fraction out of 24. Twenty four karat is all 24 parts gold, 18k is 18 parts in 24, and 14k is 14. Pure gold is soft enough to bend in the hand, so almost everything made to be worn is alloyed with copper, silver, zinc, nickel or palladium to give it enough strength to survive. The alloy is worth effectively nothing at melt, which is why a 14 gram 14k chain carries a little over 8 grams of gold and is priced on those 8 grams alone.
This is the single most common reason someone is disappointed by an offer. A heavy piece feels like it should be worth the headline gold price, and it never is, because well over a third of what you are holding is base metal. Find the stamp before you work anything out. It will be inside a ring shank, on the tongue of a clasp, or on the back of a pendant bail, and it is usually three digits.
The price for each karat
- 10k gold price per gram, stamped 417: $58.76 a gram
- 14k gold price per gram, stamped 585: $82.26 a gram
- 18k gold price per gram, stamped 750: $105.77 a gram
- 22k gold price per gram, stamped 916: $129.27 a gram
- 24k gold price per gram, stamped 999: $140.88 a gram
Twelve karat, 9k and 8k exist as well and are in the calculator, but they are rare enough in an American jewellery box not to need their own page. Nine karat is the British entry standard and turns up often in estate jewellery from the UK, where it is stamped 375.
Grams, pennyweights and troy ounces
Three units are in circulation and mixing them up is expensive. A gram is a gram. A pennyweight, written dwt, is 1.55517384 grams and is what many US jewellers quote on. A troy ounce is 31.1034768 grams, and is not the same as the ounce on a kitchen scale, which is 28.3495 grams. Reading a troy ounce as an ordinary ounce overstates a result by 9.7%, so a quick read on the units is worth it before you compare two offers.
If you are weighing at home, a scale that reads to 0.1 g is enough for anything over a gram or two, and costs very little. How to weigh gold at home covers getting a figure you can actually rely on, including what to do about stones.
What you will be offered per gram
The price per gram in the table is the metal value. No buyer pays it, because the cost of testing, melting and refining your piece, plus their own margin, comes out of it first. In round numbers a pawn shop pays 50% to 60% of melt, a local jeweller 65% to 75%, and a mail-in refiner 80% to 85%. What buyers actually pay explains where those bands come from and when each kind of buyer is the right one.
A gram of 14k gold at melt is $82.26, so a typical pawn shop offer on a single gram is $41.13 to $49.36. On one gram that spread is small. On a 200 gram lot it is the difference between a good day and a bad one, which is why it pays to get a second quote on anything substantial.
Gold price per gram questions
How much is 1 gram of gold worth today?
A gram of pure 24k gold is the spot price per troy ounce divided by 31.1034768. Most jewellery is not pure, so the answer for a specific piece is that figure multiplied by its purity: 58.3% for 14k, 75% for 18k, 41.7% for 10k. The table on this page gives all of them at the current benchmark.
Why is the gold price quoted per ounce and not per gram?
The London benchmark and every futures contract are quoted in troy ounces, a 31.1034768 gram unit used only for precious metals. The world trades in ounces and sells jewellery by the gram, so every consumer price per gram is a conversion of the same underlying number.
Is the gold price per gram the same everywhere?
The underlying benchmark is global and quoted in US dollars. What differs between countries is the currency conversion, local taxes and the dealer margin on top. A shop price per gram in Dubai and in Chicago starts from the identical London number.
Does the price per gram change during the day?
Yes. Gold trades around the clock and the price moves continuously. The London benchmark is a formal price set twice a trading day and is what this site uses, because it is published, auditable and free. Intraday it can differ from a live spot feed by a few dollars an ounce.
How do I work out what my chain is worth per gram?
Weigh it on a scale that reads to 0.1 g, find the karat stamp inside the clasp, then multiply the weight by the price per gram for that karat in the table above. Subtract nothing for the clasp; it is the same metal. That gives melt value, before any buyer takes their margin.
Why do dealers quote pennyweight instead of grams?
A pennyweight is 1.555 grams and is the traditional US jewellery trade unit. A price per pennyweight looks larger than the same price per gram, which is why some buyers prefer it. Convert before you compare offers: a quote per dwt divided by 1.555 gives the price per gram.
Is a gram of gold jewellery worth the same as a gram of bullion?
No. A gram of 24k bullion is worth the full gram price, and a dealer will buy a recognised coin or bar near spot. A gram of 14k jewellery contains 0.583 g of gold, and the buyer still has to assay and refine it, so the offer is a percentage of that smaller figure.