Gold Value Calculator by Karat and Weight

Reviewed by the Gold Value Chart Editorial Team · Updated October 5, 2026

Values on this page use gold spot at $4,141.50/oz · updated October 5, 2026

Quick answer: Pick the karat stamped on your piece, enter its weight in grams, pennyweights or ounces, and the calculator multiplies weight by purity by today's spot price of $4,141.50 per troy ounce. The result is the value of the pure gold inside, called melt value. It is a ceiling for what a buyer will pay, not an offer.

What the number on the screen means

The calculator does one piece of arithmetic. Your weight is converted to troy ounces, multiplied by the fraction of that weight that is actually gold, and priced at the live spot figure. Spot right now is $4,141.50 per troy ounce, which works out to $133.15 per gram of pure gold and $207.07 per pennyweight.

Two things are left out on purpose. The first is the cost of turning your item back into bullion: refining, assaying and the buyer's margin. The second is anything a collector would pay above the metal, such as the maker's name on a signet ring or the date on a coin. What remains is the metal alone, which is the cleanest number to compare against any quote you receive.

If the table above shows a figure and the widget does not (for example, with scripts blocked), nothing is lost. The table is the same math, printed in advance for common karats and weights.

Worked examples at today's price

Numbers are easier to trust when you can follow one through by hand. Each example below uses the live figures on this page, so they move when spot moves.

Notice what the table teaches. The 10-gram bar and the 10.5-gram wedding band weigh almost the same, yet the bar is worth far more, because 24K carries 99.9% gold and 14K carries 58.3%. Weight alone never tells you the value. Weight and karat together do.

Step 1, find the karat stamp

Look for a small mark inside the band of a ring, on the clasp of a chain, on the post of an earring, or on the back of a pendant. You may need a magnifier and good light.

• Karat marks read like 10K, 14K, 18K, 22K or 24K. Some pieces say KT or K instead.
• Fineness marks are three digits showing parts per thousand: 417 for 10K, 585 (or 583) for 14K, 750 for 18K, 916 or 917 for 22K, 999 for 24K.
• Letters after the number change the story. GF, GP, HGE and RGP mean the piece is plated or filled, so it holds a thin layer of gold over base metal. Enter it in the calculator and the answer will be badly overstated. Treat those as having close to no melt value.
• A maker's mark alone, with no karat, tells you nothing about purity. Do not guess.

Smaller items sometimes have no stamp at all. The links on gold value by karat show what each mark means and where it tends to appear.

Step 2, weigh it properly

A kitchen scale that reads whole grams is not good enough for a gold ring. A pocket jewelry scale that reads to 0.01 gram costs little and is worth owning for this alone.

1. Remove stones or ask whether the quote deducts them. Gemstones are not gold and the calculator does not price them.
2. Weigh the piece by itself, with no box or bag, after zeroing the scale.
3. Write down the weight in grams, then check which unit the calculator is set to. Jewelers and scrap buyers often speak in pennyweights (1.555 grams each), while dealers of coins and bars use troy ounces.
4. Beware the kitchen-ounce trap. A regular ounce is lighter than a troy ounce, so 2 ordinary ounces of gold would be about $733.40 less than two troy ounces. Convert before you type. Our weight page lays out every unit side by side.

Step 3, test the purity if the stamp is missing or doubtful

A stamp can be worn off or, occasionally, wrong. Home checks can raise or lower your confidence, though none replaces a professional assay.

• Magnet test. Gold is not magnetic. If a piece clings to a magnet, it is not solid gold, though a clasp spring may be steel inside a genuine piece.
• Density test. Gold is very dense, about 19.3 grams per cubic centimeter in pure form. Fully weighing a piece in air and then suspended in water gives you an approximate density to compare. Alloys of lower karat read lower.
• Acid scratch test. Jewelers use test acids on a touchstone to compare against a known sample. It marks the piece, so it belongs to someone trained.
• Electronic testers and XRF. A shop with an X-ray fluorescence analyzer can read the alloy without damaging the piece, usually in seconds.

When a buyer re-tests your piece and finds a lower karat than the stamp, enter the lower karat in the calculator and the discrepancy will be obvious in dollars.

Step 4, read the result without fooling yourself

• Treat the figure as a ceiling. A buyer needs to pay for refining and keep a margin. Ranges reported by the trade, and why they vary, are on the page about melt value versus what buyers pay.
• Check the time stamp. Spot is refreshed on the page about once a minute while it is open. If the market moved sharply, the number moves with it.
• Remember the premium on coins. A modern bullion coin or a rare date is not worth only its melt value. For those, the calculator gives a floor.
• Add pieces individually. Different karats do not combine. Run each item and add the results.

Common mistakes the calculator can't catch

• Entering the total weight of a watch, which includes steel, crystal and a mechanical movement.
• Using the wrong unit: grams typed in the pennyweight field makes the answer 1.555 times too small.
• Assuming a gold-colored coin is gold. Fineness, not color, decides.
• Forgetting that "karat" and "carat" are different. Karat measures gold purity; carat measures gemstone weight.

Related pages

• Gold value by karat: the full 10K to 24K table.
• Gold value per gram: 1 to 100 grams by karat.
• Gold value by weight: gram, pennyweight, ounce and kilo.
• Gold melt value vs. what buyers pay: turning a melt figure into a fair offer.
• Gold coin value chart: melt value of the common coins.

Frequently asked questions

Data sources: Spot price via api.gold-api.com · COMEX futures (GC=F) via Yahoo Finance. Prices are for informational purposes only and may be delayed. Figures on this page were generated 2026-10-05. Gold is quoted in US dollars per troy ounce.