24K Gold Calculator
Price pure gold by weight. This page treats 24K as 24 ÷ 24, which is 100% gold. Bars stamped 999 are 99.9%, a step under that.
24K gold value
1 troy oz = 31.1 g · 1 oz = 28.35 g · 1 dwt = 1.555 g
24K · 100.0%
Priced as 24 ÷ 24 (100%). A 999 stamp is 99.9% gold.
Common 24K weights
| Weight | Pure gold | Melt value |
|---|---|---|
| 1 g | 1.000 g | — |
| 5 g | 5.000 g | — |
| 10 g | 10.000 g | — |
| 20 g | 20.000 g | — |
| 50 g | 50.000 g | — |
| 1 oz | 28.350 g | — |
One piece at 24K, using the price above. 1 oz is the regular ounce (28.35 g), not a troy ounce (31.103 g).
Selling? See what buyers may pay for scrap gold.
Related karats
On this page
24K is pure gold for this calculator: 24 ÷ 24, or 100%. The stamp on bullion is usually 999 (99.9%) or 999.9 (99.99%). Jewelry is rarely 24K because the metal is too soft to hold a shape.
24K is bullion, not a ring alloy
Twenty-four karat means every part is gold. There is no copper to harden it and no silver to change the color. That is what a minted bar, a cast bar and a bullion coin are trying to be. It is a poor recipe for a clasp, a prong or a thin band, which is why US and European jewelry stopped at 18K or 22K. In some parts of Asia, 24K jewelry is still made, thick enough that the softness is tolerable, and those pieces are honestly pure gold. They will mark if you wear them. The marks do not change the melt value except for the tiny amount of metal a polish removes.
This calculator prices 24K as 24 ÷ 24. That is 100%. The bar in your hand is more likely stamped 999, which is 99.9%, or 999.9, which is 99.99%. 999.9 is what refiners call four nines. 999 is three nines. The gap between 100% and 99.9% is one gram of other metal in a kilogram, or about 0.03 grams in a one troy ounce bar. For a small cast bar it can hide inside the rounding of a quote. For a 100 gram bar it is a tenth of a gram of gold, and a careful buyer will mention it. If you want the 999 figure itself, type 999 into the gold karat calculator. It will show 99.9% and 23.98K. This page stays on 100% so “24K” means one thing.
The spot price is already the price of one troy ounce of pure gold. When the purity is 100%, the per-troy-ounce line in the result is the spot price. That is the check that the calculator is behaving. If that line and the price box disagree, the karat is not 24 or the unit of the price box has been misread. The price box is always per troy ounce, in the currency you picked.
Why pure gold is soft, and why bars still sell above melt
Gold is a soft metal on purpose in bullion. Soft means it can be rolled, stamped and poured. It also means a 24K ring bends and a 24K chain kinks at the links. Alloyed gold exists so jewelry can be worn. If you have a 24K chain, price it here, and expect wear that 14K would have resisted. Do not “correct” it to 22K because it seems too soft to be jewelry. Softness is the evidence, not a problem to fix in the karat field. The karat field is locked anyway.
Bars and recognized coins often sell for more than melt. The extra is a premium. It pays for minting, for a trusted brand, for a sealed assay card, and for the fact that the next buyer does not have to test the metal. A scratched private pour, a bar with no mark, or a piece that has been drilled may sell at melt or under it, because the buyer now has to assay. This page never adds a premium and never subtracts a dealer’s discount. The number is melt. If a dealer’s sell price is above it, you are looking at the premium. If a scrap buyer’s bid is below it, you are looking at their margin. Both can be true on the same day for different objects.
A coin’s face value is not its gold value. A bullion coin stamped as legal tender is still worth the gold inside it, plus or minus the premium, and the face value is usually far smaller. Numismatic coins, the rare ones, can be worth more than any melt figure for reasons this calculator does not know. Melt is the floor under a common bullion coin. It is not an appraisal of a rarity.
Reading 999, 999.9 and 24K
On a bar, the fineness is printed on the face: 999, 999.9, or sometimes 995 on older or regional bars. 995 is 99.5%, which is 23.88K, not close enough to pretend it is the same as 100% on a large bar. Use the karat calculator for 995. On jewelry, “24K” or “999” may be on the clasp. A 24K stamp on a piece that also says GF or GP is a plating claim. Pure gold foil over brass is not a 24K chain. The weight of the brass would dominate, and this page would wildly overstate it.
Weigh a bar without the plastic assay card. The card is not gold, and on a 1 gram bar the card can weigh as much as the gold. A 1 troy ounce bar should weigh 31.1034768 grams if it is the gold alone. If your scale says something close, you are holding a troy ounce. If it says about 28.349523125 grams, you are holding a regular ounce, which is lighter, and you should select Ounces (oz), not Troy oz. Mixing those two is a 9.7% error, larger than the gap between 999 and 1000.
One pennyweight is 1.55517384 g. Bullion is rarely quoted in pennyweight. Jewelers use it for scrap. A 24K scrap chain can still be weighed that way. The unit switch converts the number you typed from the unit you typed it in, so a round trip back to grams returns the same text rather than a rounded cousin of it.
One troy ounce of 24K at the live price
The worked example is one troy ounce, 31.1034768 grams, because that is the bar the gold price itself is quoted against. At 100% purity the melt value of that bar is the spot price. The sentence below says it with the quote currently in the calculator, and it shows what the same weight would be if it were 22K or 18K instead. A 5 gram cast bar is a common smaller piece. Divide the troy-ounce result in your head only if you must. Better: change the weight in the calculator to 5 grams and read the result directly.
The worked example uses 1 troy ounce 24K bar and fills in from the price in the calculator.
A sample label means the live feed has not arrived and the figure is a stand-in. A custom label means you typed the price. A live label means the quote came from gold-api.com, and the time next to the price is the time on that quote. None of those labels is a forecast. The page does not store a history and it does not guess the next move.
If you are selling the bar to a dealer, compare their bid with this melt figure. A small discount on a 999 bar can be their spread. A large discount needs a reason: an unreadable stamp, a drill hole, a weight that does not match the face. If you are selling a 24K chain to a pawn shop, you are in the scrap market, and the scrap gold calculator is the better second step. Pawn spreads are wider than bullion spreads because the shop cannot resell a kinked chain as a bar.
24K against 22K and 18K
22K is 91.7% gold, stamped 916. 18K is 75% gold, stamped 750. A gram of 22K jewelry contains 22/24 of a gram of pure gold. A gram of 18K contains three quarters of a gram. A gram of 24K, on this page, contains a gram. That is the entire hierarchy. Color and hardness run in the other direction: 18K is harder and slightly less yellow, 22K is the jewelry compromise, 24K is the metal with nothing added.
| Karat | Percent used here | Common stamp | Pure gold in 10 g |
|---|---|---|---|
| 18K | 75% | 750 | 7.50 g |
| 22K | 91.7% | 916 | 9.17 g |
| 24K | 100% | 999 | 10.00 g |
The 999 stamp is listed because that is what is struck on the metal. The 10.00 gram cell uses 100%, which is what you get if you select 24K here. A 999 bar of 10 grams contains 9.99 grams of gold. Say which one you mean when you compare a quote. The 14K and 10K pages are for jewelry alloys, not for bars. The gold calculator is for a mixed lot, where one piece is 24K and another is not.
24K Gold Calculator questions
Is 24K completely pure gold?
This calculator treats 24K as 24 divided by 24, which is 100% gold. Bars and coins stamped 999 are 99.9% gold, and 999.9 is 99.99%. On a one troy ounce bar the gap between 100% and 99.9% is one tenth of one percent. Use the gold karat calculator if you want to price the 999 mark itself.
Why is jewelry rarely 24K in the United States?
Pure gold bends, scratches and wears. A thin 24K chain can twist, and a 24K ring will mark from ordinary wear. Jewelers add copper, silver and other metals so the piece keeps its shape. That alloy is why 22K, 18K and 14K exist. 24K is the right karat for bullion, where the shape is a bar or a coin and the buyer wants the metal itself.
What is one troy ounce of 24K gold worth?
At 100% purity, one troy ounce of 24K is worth the spot price shown in the calculator. The price box is dollars per troy ounce of pure gold, so the per-troy-ounce line for 24K matches that quote. A bar stamped 999 is a fraction under it. The table on this page prices a regular ounce as well, and that ounce is lighter than a troy ounce.
Do gold coins and bars sell for melt value?
Often they sell for more. A recognized bullion coin or a sealed bar can carry a premium over melt, because the weight and purity are already known. A bent, odd or privately poured piece may sell closer to melt, or under it if a buyer has to assay it. This page prices melt only. It does not add a dealer premium and it does not subtract a scrap buyer’s margin.
Is 24K the same thing as a 999 stamp?
Almost. 999 means 999 parts of gold per thousand, which is 99.9%. 24K on this calculator is 100%. The two are close enough that a quote rounded to the dollar often looks the same on a small bar, and far enough apart that a large bar should not be treated as identical. If the piece is stamped 999, say so when you compare offers.
Can I wear a 24K chain or bangle?
You can, and in some countries 24K jewelry is traditional. It will mark easily, and a thin chain can bend at the clasp. The melt value is still the gold content. If the piece is hollow or has a lacquer coating, weigh the gold, not the whole object. Selling a worn 24K chain is a scrap question, and the scrap gold calculator is the page for a buyer’s likely payout.