Gold price by karat

The calculator above at its defaults — spot $3,904.51/oz (+0.74% on the snapshot day), Rs 276.72 = $1 — printed as static text, so the figures are here even if the calculator does not load:

There is only one gold price in the world at any moment: the spot price per troy ounce of pure (24K) gold. Every other figure is arithmetic. Divide the spot price by 31.1034768 and you have 24K per gram — $125.53 at the snapshot. Multiply by a karat’s purity fraction and you have that karat: 22K is $125.53 × 22/24 = $115.07 a gram, 18K is $125.53 × 18/24 = $94.15, 14K is $73.23 and 10K is $52.31. Multiply by 11.6638038 instead and the same rows read per tola: 24K $1,464.19, 22K $1,342.18, 18K $1,098.14.

In rupees, at the snapshot interbank rate of Rs 276.72 = $1, the gram prices are: 24K Rs 34,737.47, 22K Rs 31,842.68, 21K Rs 30,395.28, 18K Rs 26,053.10, 14K Rs 20,263.52 and 10K Rs 14,473.94. Per tola: 24K Rs 405,171 and 22K Rs 371,406.75. Local sarafa rates in Pakistan sit close to these converted figures, with small market differences — our tola guide shows exactly how the Pakistan rate is built.

Which karat is which?

• 24K (100.0% by the karat fraction; 999 fine) — bars, coins and investment gold. Pure, soft, and the benchmark every other price derives from.
• 22K (91.7%) — the jewellery standard in Pakistan and India: hard enough for daily wear, close enough to pure to hold value.
• 21K (87.5%) — common in the Gulf states, the traditional Middle East jewellery grade.
• 18K (75.0%) — jewellery with stones: the alloy gives settings their grip and strength.
• 14K (58.3%) — the everyday jewellery standard in the US and Europe.
• 10K (41.7%) — the minimum that can legally be sold as “gold” in the US.

The stamps inside jewellery match the fractions: 999 or 24K, 916 for 22K, 875 for 21K, 750 for 18K, 585 for 14K, 417 for 10K. If you are valuing a specific piece rather than browsing prices, the value calculator takes its weight and karat directly.

The Pakistan market does not run a separate market for every karat. It trades 24K benchmark forms — rawa (loose, unpackaged gold) and imported TT bars — and the associations announce a per-tola rate for that benchmark. Every lower karat is then derived from it with the same fractions this table uses: a 22K price is the 24K benchmark × 22/24, a 21K price × 21/24. That is why the rupee column above converts the one benchmark instead of quoting a separate “22K market price” — there isn’t one.

Two counter prices grow out of that benchmark. A shop sells at or above the announced rate and buys back below it; the gap between the two — the spread — is where testing, refining and the risk of holding the metal get paid for. Finished jewellery adds banwai (making charges) on top of the metal rate, and selling old jewellery back usually attracts katt, a deduction for the solder, wear and refining loss in the piece. Neither charge appears in this table: our figures are the spot-converted melt values the counter prices start from, not the counter prices themselves — the tola guide rebuilds the full chain step by step.