Gold Purity & Value Calculator

About this calculator

Gold's melt value is its pure-gold content priced at the current spot rate. Multiply the item's weight by its purity — karat ÷ 24, so 22-karat is 91.7% gold — then by the gold price. A 10-gram 22K chain holds 9.17 g of pure gold, worth about $1,150 when gold trades near $3,900 per troy ounce. Enter your weight, karat or fineness, and today's price (fetch it live or type it) to value jewellery, coins, bars, or scrap in any currency.

How to read your results

The headline figure is the melt value — what the pure gold in your item is worth at the price you used, before any dealer margin. Below it, the pure-gold content is shown in grams, troy ounces, and tola, and your purity is expressed three ways (karat, millesimal fineness, and percent) so a "916" stamp and "22K" read as the same thing. The bar chart compares your weight across common karats, so you can see how much purity drives value. If you enter a buyer's offer percentage, the payout row shows what a dealer paying that share of melt would actually hand you.

How it's calculated

Weight is converted to grams with exact constants: 1 troy ounce = 31.1034768 g, 1 (standard) tola = 11.6638038 g, 1 pennyweight = 1.55517384 g, 1 grain = 0.06479891 g. Purity becomes a fraction — karat ÷ 24, fineness ÷ 1000, or percent ÷ 100 — and pure gold content = weight in grams × that fraction. Melt value = pure grams × spot price per gram, where the spot price is converted from your chosen unit (per troy ounce, gram, or tola). The value math uses the exact karat fraction (22K = 22⁄24 = 91.67%); the fineness shown as a stamp uses the hallmark convention (22K → 916, 14K → 585), which differs slightly from the exact figure because stamps are rounded by agreement, not arithmetic. Making charges, collector premiums, and resale margins are excluded — this is intrinsic metal value only.

Worked example

A 15 g 18-karat bracelet, gold at $3,900 per troy ounce, a scrap buyer offering 85% of melt.

Pure gold = 15 g × 18⁄24 = 11.25 g = 0.3617 troy oz. Melt value = 0.3617 × $3,900 ≈ $1,410. At 85%, the buyer would pay about $1,199.

Frequently asked questions

How do I calculate the value of my gold?

Multiply the weight of your gold by its purity to get the pure-gold content, then multiply by the current gold price. Purity is the karat divided by 24 (18K = 0.75), and gold is normally priced per troy ounce (31.1034768 grams). So 20 g of 18K gold is 15 g of pure gold — about 0.482 troy ounce — which at $3,900 per ounce is roughly $1,880. This tool does all three steps, in grams, troy ounces, or tola, and in any currency.

What is the difference between 22K and 916 gold?

They describe the same purity in different units. Karat is parts of gold out of 24, so 22K is 22⁄24 = 91.67% gold. Millesimal fineness is parts per thousand, so that same gold is stamped 916 (the hallmark convention rounds 916.7 down to 916). Likewise 18K = 750 = 75%, and 14K = 585 = 58.3%. The calculator shows all three so a stamp and a karat always line up.

How many grams are in a tola of gold?

One standard tola is 11.6638038 grams — exactly three-eighths of a troy ounce — the value fixed in British India in 1833 and still used across India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh, where ten-tola bars are common. Some bazaars quote a rounded 11.66 g. Enter your weight in tola directly and the calculator converts it, or price the gold per tola if that is how your local rate is quoted.

Does the value include making charges or what a shop will pay?

No. The result is the intrinsic melt value — the worth of the pure gold alone. Jewellery also carries a making (labour) charge when you buy, and a dealer buying it back pays a margin below melt, so a shop offer is usually lower than the melt figure and a retail price higher. Use the optional buyer-offer percentage to estimate a realistic payout, and treat collector or antique pieces separately, since their value can exceed the metal.

Where does the live gold price come from?

The "Get live price" button pulls the current spot price from a public market feed and converts it to your currency; a backup source keeps it working if the first is unavailable, and the result is cached briefly so it stays fast. Gold moves continuously, so the figure is a recent quote, not a locked rate — you can always type a price yourself, and the calculation is identical either way.

Sources

• en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troy_weight — Wikipedia
• en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fineness — Wikipedia
• en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tola_(unit) — Wikipedia
• www.lbma.org.uk/publications/the-otc-guide/the-price — London Bullion Market Association
• gold-api.com — Gold-API

Reviewed by the YouCalc Team · Last reviewed July 17, 2026