Quick answer
This is the wholesale spot reference used by refiners and institutional traders. Retail buyers pay this plus a dealer premium; sellers receive this minus a buyback spread. There is no single official U.S. gold price; the LBMA London auction and COMEX futures set the global reference on business days.
Reference spot in U.S. dollars, updated 4 hours ago. Not a retail quote.
What the Gold Spot Price Is (and Is Not)
The gold spot price is the wholesale wire-transfer price at which one troy ounce of unallocated, London good-delivery gold changes hands between institutional counterparties for near-immediate settlement. It is a reference benchmark, not a store price.
What the spot number does not include:
- Dealer premium (fabrication, distribution, marketing, and dealer margin) added to any coin, bar, or piece of jewelry you buy.
- Sales tax, shipping, insured freight, or credit-card surcharges.
- Buyback spread when you sell (dealers typically pay spot minus a percentage, then resell at spot plus a premium).
- Assay, refining, or melt fees on scrap, dental, or jewelry lots.
Two people quoting “the price of gold” often mean different things. A jewelry buyer quoting per-gram scrap value, a coin dealer quoting per-ounce sell price, and a futures trader quoting the front-month COMEX contract can all be right and all be different by 5 percent or more at the same moment.
Per Ounce, Per Gram, Per Kilo, Per Pennyweight
Gold is quoted in troy ounces in the wholesale market. A troy ounce equals 31.1035 grams, which is heavier than a standard (avoirdupois) ounce of 28.35 grams. Common conversions from the live reference above:
| Unit | Weight | Live reference | Where you see it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Troy ounce (oz t) | 31.1035 g | $4,413.45 | Bullion coins and bars, futures contracts, LBMA fix |
| Gram | 1 g | $141.90 | Scrap jewelry, small bars, international retail |
| Kilogram | 1,000 g (32.15 oz t) | $141,895.55 | Kilo bars (COMEX kilo contract, wholesale) |
| Pennyweight (dwt) | 1.5552 g (1/20 oz t) | $220.67 | U.S. jewelry trade, dental gold |
The gram figure is what most jewelry-buying counters use when they weigh your chain, and the pennyweight is still the traditional U.S. jewelry unit. If a buyer quotes only in grams and refuses to show the per-ounce conversion, that is a signal to ask more questions. Our gold value calculator converts between units and applies karat purity so you can see the melt figure before you walk into a shop.
How the Daily Reference Is Set
Two mechanisms produce the numbers most sites quote as “spot.”
The LBMA Gold Price (London auction)
The LBMA Gold Price is an electronic auction run twice each London business day, at 10:30 a.m. and 3:00 p.m. London time, administered by ICE Benchmark Administration. Direct participant banks submit buy and sell orders in ounces at successive price levels until supply and demand balance within a small tolerance. The published print is the settlement price used to value central bank reserves, ETF holdings, and mining contracts worldwide. The LBMA publishes the daily fix in USD, GBP, and EUR.
COMEX gold futures
COMEX, part of CME Group, trades a 100 troy ounce gold futures contract (symbol GC) roughly 23 hours per business day. The front-month futures price is what most real-time “spot” tickers reference between London fixes. Contract specifications, tick size, and delivery months are published on the CME Group gold contract page. When you see a gold price on a broker terminal at 2 a.m. New York time, it is almost always the current front-month COMEX bid.
The two mechanisms typically stay within a few dollars per ounce of each other during active trading. Between the London close and the Asia open, the market can gap on news, and the next print sometimes opens above or below the previous close.
What You Actually Pay When Buying
Retail buyers never pay spot. The final price is spot plus a premium that varies by product, quantity, and dealer.
Sovereign bullion coins
American Gold Eagles, Canadian Maple Leafs, and Krugerrands typically carry a premium of 4 to 8 percent over spot for one-ounce coins from a major dealer in normal market conditions. Fractional coins (1/10, 1/4, 1/2 ounce) carry higher percentage premiums because fabrication cost is spread over less metal.
Cast and minted bars
Recognized-brand bars (PAMP Suisse, Valcambi, Argor-Heraeus, Perth Mint) typically run 2 to 5 percent over spot for one-ounce sizes and less for kilogram bars. Non-brand or generic bars can be cheaper but harder to resell without an assay.
Jewelry
Jewelry markups are not a “premium” in the bullion sense; they include design, labor, retail overhead, and often a brand margin. Retail jewelry typically sells at multiples of the underlying metal value. A 14k chain that contains $400 of melt gold can retail for $1,200 or more.
Coin shop counter deals
Local coin shops set their own premiums, often narrower on high-volume products (Eagles, Maple Leafs) and wider on numismatic or specialty items. Cash transactions may attract slightly better pricing than credit-card purchases due to the roughly 3 percent processor fee.
What You Actually Get When Selling
Selling flips the math. Buyers pay you spot minus a buyback spread, then resell to their next buyer at spot plus a premium. That two-sided spread is where dealers earn their margin.
Typical U.S. buyback percentages on physical gold to reputable dealers:
- Sovereign coins (Eagles, Maples, Krugerrands): spot minus 1 to 3 percent for one-ounce sizes; some dealers pay spot flat on major products during high-demand conditions.
- Recognized brand bars: spot minus 1 to 4 percent.
- Generic or unmarked bars: spot minus 4 to 8 percent, with an assay charge possible.
- Scrap jewelry (broken chains, dental gold, mixed karats): spot minus 15 to 40 percent after karat purity is applied. A 14k chain (58.3 percent gold) at a jewelry-buying kiosk often receives 60 to 75 percent of the calculated melt value, not the melt itself.
The jewelry gap is where most sellers get surprised. If gold is at $4,413.45 and your 20-gram 14k chain contains roughly 11.66 grams of pure gold, the melt value is that weight multiplied by the current per-gram spot. A pawn shop or mall gold-buyer paying 50 percent of melt is offering half of that number. Getting three written offers before you commit is the single most effective way to close the gap. Our guide to getting maximum value when selling walks through the negotiating steps in detail, and our gold value calculator tells you the pure-melt number before you show up.
Selling gold, coins, or jewelry?
Instead of driving to three shops for three verbal quotes, post one free selling request on Goldiew Sell Gold. Up to 15 verified U.S. buyers see the item, submit sealed written offers, and you pick the best number. It is free, there is no obligation to accept, and it turns the buyback spread into a competitive auction. Recent listings and completed sales appear in the Goldiew marketplace.
What Actually Moves the Reference Price
Live spot changes minute-by-minute during trading hours, but the sustained direction over months and years comes from a small set of macro forces. Historical context matters more than any single day’s tick.
The dominant drivers, based on 30 years of price behavior:
- U.S. dollar direction. Gold is priced in USD globally, so a weaker dollar mechanically lifts the dollar-quoted price. The 2002 to 2011 bull run and the 2023 to 2025 push to new records both coincided with periods of dollar pressure.
- Real interest rates. Gold pays no yield, so it competes against Treasury bills for portfolio allocation. When real rates (nominal rate minus inflation) fall toward zero or negative, gold typically catches a bid.
- Central bank buying. The World Gold Council reported central bank net purchases above 1,000 tonnes for multiple consecutive years in the 2020s, a structural demand shift discussed in the WGC Gold Demand Trends reports.
- Geopolitical and crisis demand. Gold spikes on acute events (Lehman collapse, Russia-Ukraine escalation) then partially retraces as markets absorb the news.
- ETF flows. The SPDR Gold Shares (GLD) ETF launched in November 2004 opened institutional and retail access at brokerage scale. Net creations and redemptions add or remove structural demand.
For the full year-by-year record and the price eras that anchor each cycle, see our 30-year gold spot price history. Past performance is not a guarantee of future results, and no honest source can predict where the next month will trade.
A Note on Freshness
The reference numbers on this page pull from a daily automated fetch. The live figure above shows the reference spot updated 4 hours ago. Between updates, the wholesale market keeps moving; a large intraday move (say, 1 percent or more) is not visible until the next refresh. If you are transacting for a specific dollar amount, ask the dealer or buyer to lock the price at the moment of the transaction, not at a stale morning quote.
For weekend or U.S. holiday queries, note that COMEX is closed and the LBMA does not publish a fix, so the quoted number reflects the previous business-day close.
Own a gold, coin, jewelry, or pawn shop?
Customers checking the daily price often want to know where to buy or sell locally. Adding your business to Goldiew is free: you get a verified profile on our city and state directories, appear in review searches for gold IRA, coin, jewelry, and pawn categories, and can respond to buyback requests posted in your service area. Start with Goldiew for Business, then claim your existing profile or sign up as a new business.
Gold Price FAQ
Why do gold prices differ between sites?
Two reasons. First, different sites feed off different sources: LBMA fix, COMEX front month, retail bid-ask midpoint, or a dealer’s own quote. Between London and New York sessions, these can diverge by a few dollars per ounce for real reasons. Second, sites refresh at different intervals. A page that updates every 15 minutes will lag a real-time COMEX tick by up to 15 minutes. The reference number on this page updates daily and represents the wholesale mid, not a live tradable quote.
Is there one official U.S. gold price?
No. The U.S. government does not publish a daily gold price. The closest thing to a global reference is the LBMA Gold Price, set twice daily by electronic auction in London. In the U.S., the COMEX front-month futures contract is what most professionals watch minute by minute. Retail dealers use one of those two as a base and add or subtract their own premium and buyback spread. See the LBMA daily reference for the institutional benchmark.
What is the difference between spot price and bid-ask?
Spot is the midpoint reference. In the real market, dealers post a bid (what they pay) and an ask (what they charge). The gap between them is the bid-ask spread, and for retail physical gold that spread can be 5 to 15 percent on smaller products. Wholesale institutional trades in London or on COMEX have spreads measured in pennies per ounce.
Why is my per-gram jewelry offer so much lower than the online per-gram price?
Three reasons. First, the per-gram spot figure is for pure (24k) gold; a 14k chain is only 58.3 percent gold, and a 10k chain is 41.7 percent. Second, jewelry buyers pay spot minus a buyback spread, not spot itself. Third, some buyers apply extra discounts for refining, testing, and their own margin. A quote of 50 to 75 percent of calculated melt value is common at mall kiosks and pawn shops. Reputable coin dealers and bullion houses typically pay closer to melt on scrap.
Can the government confiscate my gold like in 1933?
Executive Order 6102, signed by President Roosevelt on April 5, 1933, required U.S. citizens to deliver most gold coin, bullion, and certificates to the Federal Reserve in exchange for paper currency at $20.67 per ounce. That order was repealed and gold ownership fully re-legalized on December 31, 1974, under Public Law 93-373. There is no current U.S. statute authorizing peacetime civilian gold confiscation. See the National Archives entry on Executive Order 6102 for the historical record.
Is buying gold today a good investment?
This page is a reference for the current market price, not investment advice. Gold has produced meaningful long-term appreciation but also multi-year drawdowns, including a 45 percent drop from the 2011 peak that took 12 years to recover in nominal terms. Whether it fits your portfolio depends on your goals, tax situation, and time horizon. If you are considering physical gold inside a retirement account, review IRS Publication 590-A on self-directed IRA rules and speak with a licensed advisor.
Sources and Methodology
Reference figures on this page pull from a daily automated fetch of wholesale spot prices. Methodology, unit conventions, and market-mechanism descriptions cite the following primary sources:
- LBMA Gold Price. Daily London auction reference, twice per business day, administered by ICE Benchmark Administration.
- CME Group COMEX Gold Futures. Contract specifications for the 100 troy ounce futures contract (symbol GC).
- FRED Series GOLDAMGBD228NLBM, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. Public archive of daily LBMA PM Fix data back to 1968.
- World Gold Council, Gold Demand Trends. Quarterly reports on central bank buying, ETF flows, jewelry, and industrial demand.
- IRS Publication 590-A. Rules on self-directed IRAs and eligible precious metals.
- Executive Order 6102 (April 5, 1933), National Archives. Historical record on gold ownership restrictions, repealed December 31, 1974.
Reference prices are wholesale spot; they are not retail buy or sell quotes. Past performance is not a guarantee of future results. This page is informational and does not constitute investment, tax, or legal advice.