Is the spot price the price I will get for my gold?

Not exactly. The spot price is a wholesale benchmark. A buyer will pay you a percentage of the spot value of the gold content, depending on the purity, the amount and the type of business.

Why is the gold price quoted in US dollars?

Gold has historically been traded internationally in dollars, and the main benchmark (LBMA) and futures market (COMEX) both settle in dollars. Local prices are conversions from that number.

Does gold have a price on weekends?

The market is closed from Friday evening to Sunday evening New York time, so the spot price stays at the Friday close until trading resumes.

What Is the Spot Price of Gold and Who Sets It?

A price for gold "on the spot"

The spot price of gold is the price at which one troy ounce of pure gold can be bought or sold for immediate delivery. "Immediate" in the wholesale market means settlement within two business days. The figure you see quoted on financial news, on this site and in dealer windows is almost always expressed in US dollars per troy ounce, even in countries that use another currency.

A troy ounce weighs 31.1034768 grams. It is about 10% heavier than the ounce used for food in the United States (28.35 g), which is a common source of confusion when people convert prices at home.

Where the spot price comes from

There is no single exchange that "owns" the gold price. Instead, the spot price is the result of trading that runs almost 24 hours a day, five days a week, across three main hubs:

London is the largest over-the-counter market. Banks and dealers trade physical bars directly with each other. Twice a day the LBMA Gold Price auction sets a benchmark used by central banks, miners and refiners to settle contracts.
New York hosts the COMEX futures market. Futures contracts are agreements to buy or sell gold at a future date, but the most-traded contract moves almost in lockstep with spot, so it heavily influences the live quote during US hours.
Shanghai runs the Shanghai Gold Exchange, which publishes a yuan-denominated benchmark. Strong Chinese demand sometimes pushes it to a premium over London.

Data providers combine prices from these markets into the live "spot" number. That is why two websites can show slightly different figures at the same moment: they use different feeds and refresh intervals. A difference of a few dollars per ounce is normal.

Bid, ask and spread

Every quote has two sides. The bid is the price a buyer is willing to pay; the ask (or offer) is the price a seller is willing to accept. The mid-point is usually what is published as "the" spot price. In the wholesale market the spread between bid and ask is tiny — often less than half a dollar per ounce.

Retail is different. A jeweler or coin shop has to cover rent, staff, assay, insurance and profit. So when you buy, you pay a premium over spot, and when you sell, you receive a discount. Typical retail spreads range from 1–3% at large online bullion dealers to 5–20% or more at pawn shops and high-street stores. The spread controls on our country pages let you see what those percentages mean in your currency.

Illustrative margins: the gap between what you pay and what you get back is your real cost. Compare quotes against the spot price.

From spot to the price in your country

Because spot is quoted in US dollars per ounce, every local price is a conversion. The formula is simple:

Local price per gram = spot price (USD/oz) ÷ 31.1035 × purity × exchange rate

For example, if spot is 4,000 USD and the dollar buys 3.6725 UAE dirhams, one gram of 22K gold (91.6% pure) is worth 4,000 ÷ 31.1035 × 0.916 × 3.6725 ≈ 432.6 AED before any margin. This is exactly how our country pages work, and you can check the arithmetic in the "How the price is calculated" section on each one.

Two things follow from the formula. First, your local gold price can rise even when the dollar spot price is flat, simply because your currency weakens. Second, countries with import duties or sales taxes on gold — India is a well-known example — have retail prices that sit consistently above the converted spot.

Every local price on this site follows these four steps. Shops then add their margin, making charges and taxes.

When does the spot price change?

Gold trades from Sunday evening to Friday evening New York time. During weekends the price is frozen at Friday’s close, although some dealers widen their spreads to protect themselves against a gap on Monday. Prices are most active when London and New York overlap (roughly 13:00–17:00 UTC), and they can jump around major data releases such as US inflation and jobs reports or central-bank decisions.

Spot price vs. futures price

Futures prices include the cost of carrying gold until the contract’s delivery date — mainly interest and storage. That is why a December contract usually trades a little above spot in normal markets. For everyday purposes such as valuing jewelry, the difference does not matter, but it explains why a futures quote on a trading app may not match the spot price on this site.