Live spot price applied to your weight and purity — and, more usefully, what a dealer will actually pay. Melt value is the number every calculator gives you. The gap between melt value and a real offer runs from 3% at a bullion desk to 45% at a pawnshop, and knowing which applies is worth more than the spot price itself.
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Melt value is not what you get paid
Every gold calculator returns melt value — the metal content at spot. Nobody pays spot. Dealers buy below and sell above, and the spread depends entirely on what you are selling and to whom:
| Channel | Typical offer | Why the spread is what it is |
|---|---|---|
| Bullion dealer recognised bars and coins | 97–99% of spot | No refining needed, instantly resaleable, verified product. The tightest spread available |
| Gold buyer / refiner scrap | 90–95% | Must assay, refine and bear the price risk until it does. Reputable refiners publish their rates |
| Jewellery shop trade-in | 70–85% | They are a retailer, not a refiner. Better rates if you are buying something in exchange |
| Pawnshop or mall kiosk | 55–70% | Convenience pricing. They rely on you not knowing the spot price, which is the entire business model |
A 20 g 18K chain with a melt value of about $1,250 fetches roughly $1,190 from a refiner and around $750 at a mall kiosk. Same metal, same day — a difference of $440 for a phone call and a short drive.
Ranges are typical rather than guaranteed. Get quotes from at least three buyers, and be wary of anyone who will not state their percentage of spot before weighing your items.
About the live price
The spot price loads automatically when the page opens, from a public market feed. Two things worth knowing about any free price feed, including this one:
| Point | What it means for you |
|---|---|
| It is indicative, not a quote | Spot is the wholesale reference for large refined lots. No dealer transacts at it, and it carries no bid-offer spread. Treat it as the reference point the whole market prices from |
| It may lag | Free feeds update on their own schedule and can be minutes behind. The panel shows how old the reading is — if it says anything other than "just now", check against a live chart before acting on a large amount |
| Markets close | Precious metals trade nearly around the clock on weekdays, but pause at weekends. A Sunday price is Friday's close, not a live market |
| You can override it | Type your own figure into the price field at any time. If you have a dealer's live quote or a specific fixing in mind, use that instead — it will be more relevant than any general feed |
The calculator tries a second source automatically if the first does not respond, and tells you plainly when neither is reachable rather than showing a stale number as though it were current. For anything above a few thousand dollars, confirm against a dealer quote before you transact.
The LBMA Gold Price, set twice daily in London, is the benchmark most contracts reference. Spot feeds track it closely but are not the same thing.
Purity: karat, hallmark and what they mean
| Karat | Hallmark | Gold | Where you meet it |
|---|---|---|---|
| 24K | 999 / 999.9 | 99.9% | Bullion bars and coins. Too soft for jewellery that gets worn |
| 22K | 916 / 917 | 91.67% | Indian and South Asian jewellery, sovereigns, Krugerrands |
| 21K | 875 | 87.5% | The Gulf standard — Saudi Arabia, UAE, Kuwait, Egypt |
| 18K | 750 | 75% | European and luxury jewellery. The usual balance of colour and durability |
| 14K | 583 / 585 | 58.3% | The US mainstream. Hard-wearing, paler colour |
| 10K | 417 | 41.7% | US minimum that may legally be called gold |
| 9K | 375 | 37.5% | UK minimum. Not recognised as gold in the US |
Two things the hallmark does not tell you. Plated items carry no meaningful gold value — a stamp reading GP, GF, HGE or RGP means plated, filled or electroplated, and the gold layer is measured in microns. And hallmarks can be forged; for anything of significant value, an acid test or XRF assay costs little and settles it.
Why 24K jewellery is rare
Pure gold is remarkably soft — you can mark it with a fingernail. That is why almost all jewellery is alloyed, and the alloy does more than add hardness:
| Alloy | Colour | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| Copper | Rose / red gold | Hardest common alloy. More copper gives deeper colour |
| Silver | Green-yellow | Softer, pales the colour |
| Nickel or palladium | White gold | Nearly always rhodium-plated on top. Nickel causes allergic reaction in a significant minority and is restricted in the EU |
| Zinc | — | Lowers melting point, aids casting |
The practical consequence for valuation: white gold and rose gold of the same karat contain identical gold. The colour is entirely in the alloy, and melt value is the same. A buyer paying differently for them is pricing fashion, not metal.
The four precious metals, compared
| Metal | Typical use | What drives its price |
|---|---|---|
| Gold (XAU) | Store of value, jewellery, central bank reserves | Real interest rates, currency strength, geopolitical stress. Roughly half of demand is jewellery |
| Silver (XAG) | Industrial and investment | More than half of demand is industrial — solar panels, electronics. Far more volatile than gold |
| Platinum (XPT) | Catalytic converters, jewellery | Overwhelmingly automotive. Traded below gold since 2015, having historically been above |
| Palladium (XPD) | Catalytic converters | Almost purely automotive, with supply concentrated in Russia and South Africa. The most volatile of the four |
The gold-silver ratio — how many ounces of silver buy one of gold — is watched as a relative-value signal. It has ranged from about 15 to over 100 across history, and there is no consensus on what level is "correct".
Hallmarks, and what a stamp does not prove
A karat stamp is a claim about content. Whether it is a guarantee depends entirely on where the piece was made:
| Marking system | Where | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| Assay office hallmark | UK, Ireland | Independently tested. Legally required above 1 g of gold, and carries a sponsor mark, a fineness number and an office mark |
| Fineness stamp | Most of Europe | 750, 585, 375 and so on. Often assayed, though the requirement varies by country |
| Karat stamp | United States | Self-declared by the maker. No independent assay is required, and a tolerance of half a karat is permitted |
| Gold plated, GF, GP, HGE | Everywhere | Base metal with a coating. Melt value is close to nothing whatever the piece weighs |
| No mark at all | Everywhere | Common in older and handmade pieces. It is neither proof nor disproof — it needs testing |
Weight in the trade
Precious metals carry their own weight units, and one of them exists purely for gemstones:
| Unit | Equals | Used for |
|---|---|---|
| Troy ounce | 31.1035 g | The standard quote unit for gold, silver, platinum and palladium worldwide |
| Pennyweight (dwt) | 1.5552 g | 1/20 of a troy ounce. Still used by US scrap buyers, which makes offers harder to compare |
| Tola | 11.6638 g | South Asia and the Gulf. Bars are commonly sold in 10-tola units |
| Tael | 37.4290 g | Hong Kong and Chinese markets, where it is the customary trading unit |
| Carat | 0.2 g | Gemstone weight, not gold purity. Spelled with a C; karat with a K is the purity scale |
Carat and karat are different measurements that sound identical. A one-carat diamond weighs 0.2 grams; an 18-karat ring is 75% gold. British English uses “carat” for both, which is why fineness numbers — 750, 585, 375 — are the safer thing to quote.
Common mistakes
Frequently asked questions
Is this a live gold price calculator?
Yes — the price field loads from a live market feed when the page opens, and you can type your own figure at any time to override it. Note that spot prices move continuously during trading hours, so a valuation is accurate to the moment it was calculated rather than indefinitely.
What does 750 or 916 stamped on jewellery mean?
Parts per thousand of pure gold. 750 means 75% gold, equivalent to 18 karat; 916 or 917 means 91.67%, which is 22 karat; 875 is 21 karat, the Gulf standard. The millesimal system is used across Europe and the Middle East, while karat marking is more common in the US and UK. Both describe the same thing.
Will a buyer actually pay the calculated value?
No, and the gap is large. Melt value is the metal content at wholesale spot. A bullion dealer pays 97–99% for recognised bars and coins, a refiner 90–95% for scrap, a jewellery shop 70–85%, and a pawnshop or mall kiosk 55–70%. On a $1,250 chain that spread is over $400. Use the channel selector above to see a realistic figure.
Is 22K gold 95.8% pure?
No — 22K is 22/24, which is 91.67%. The 95.8% figure is 23 karat, and it appears wrongly in a number of online calculators where it overstates value by about 4.5%. Karat is always a fraction in 24ths: divide the karat number by 24 to get the purity.
Do white gold and yellow gold differ in value?
Not in melt value. 18K white and 18K yellow both contain exactly 75% gold — the colour comes from the remaining 25%, which is nickel or palladium in white gold and copper or silver in yellow. Retail prices differ because white gold requires rhodium plating that needs periodic renewal, but the metal content is identical.
What is gold-plated worth?
Almost nothing as scrap. Marks like GP, GF, HGE or RGP mean plated, filled or electroplated, and the gold layer is typically a few microns — grams of base metal carrying milligrams of gold. Recovery costs usually exceed the value. Gold-filled is the thickest of these and still rarely worth refining in small quantities.
Should I sell to a pawnshop?
Only if speed matters more than money. Pawnshops and mall kiosks typically pay 55–70% of melt, against 90–95% from a reputable refiner — a difference of a third or more on the same items. Get quotes from at least three buyers, ask each what percentage of spot they pay, and walk away from anyone who will not answer that before weighing.
Is my input stored?
No. The calculation runs entirely in your browser. The only network request is to fetch the live spot price, which sends nothing about your holdings.
Related calculators
See the full list of Financial calculators, or try:
- Weight Converter — troy against ordinary weight, with the paradox explained
- Percentage Calculator — purity ratios and spread arithmetic
- Inflation Calculator — what gold is often held against
- Investment Calculator — projected growth on a position
- CAGR Calculator — annualised return between two prices
- Currency Converter — spot is quoted in USD