How GoldCue calculates every figure

The spot price

The starting point of every figure is the spot price: the world market price of one troy ounce of pure gold, quoted in US dollars (XAU/USD). GoldCue ships with a dated snapshot — Monday 2 November 2026: spot $3,904.51, previous close $3,875.65, day change +0.74% — and every page that uses it says so. The snapshot is a starting point, not a claim about today’s market: every calculator has clearly labelled spot-price and dollar-rate boxes, and entering today’s figures updates every result on the page. We would rather show an honest date than a stale number dressed up as live.

The two conversions

• Troy ounce = 31.1034768 grams. Gold is traded worldwide in troy ounces — not the 28.35-gram avoirdupois ounce used for groceries. Price per gram (24K) = spot ÷ 31.1034768.
• Tola = 11.6638038 grams. The unit of the Pakistan and India gold trade. Price per tola = price per gram × 11.6638038. One troy ounce is about 2.67 tola.
• Kilogram = 1,000 grams, for bars and larger holdings.

Karat purity

Karat measures purity in 24ths. The pure-gold fraction of any karat is karat ÷ 24: 24K = 100.0%, 22K = 91.7%, 21K = 87.5%, 18K = 75.0%, 14K = 58.3%, 10K = 41.7%. A karat’s price per gram = the 24K price per gram × its fraction, and an item’s pure gold content = its weight × its fraction. Jewellery hallmark stamps state the same fractions in thousandths: 999 = 24K, 916 = 22K, 875 = 21K, 750 = 18K, 585 = 14K, 417 = 10K — the stamp column of the karat table shows them beside every price.

Melt value

Melt value = weight × purity fraction × spot price per gram. It is the market value of the pure gold inside an item — no more, no less. It excludes gemstones, craftsmanship, brand and collectibility, and it is a gross figure: buyers refine and resell the metal, so real purchase offers land below melt value (typically 70–95%, depending on the buyer, the item and the market), while retail selling prices sit above it once making charges and margins are added. GoldCue always labels its figures as melt value so the distinction is never blurred.

Rupee figures

Rupee prices are dollar prices × the exchange rate entered in the calculators. The snapshot rate is Rs 276.72 = $1, the State Bank of Pakistan interbank rate for 2 November 2026. Local sarafa (market) rates in Pakistan are set daily by the gold associations from the same ingredients — international spot price, dollar–rupee rate and local market conditions — so they sit close to our converted figures, but they are not identical to them: association premiums and city-to-city differences exist, and a counter rate can move during the day. Treat GoldCue’s rupee figures as the spot-converted value of the metal, and confirm the day’s association rate before a transaction.

The history data

The history table and chart — and the “then” side of the profit calculator — use annual average prices per troy ounce for 2000–2025, compiled from LBMA London PM fix data (via YCharts) and cross-checked against Money Metals’ average-closing-price series. An annual average is the honest basis for “what was gold worth the year I bought it?”; it is not the price on any specific day, and daily prices moved around each year’s average. No row is shown for a year that has not finished.

Rounding

All calculation runs at full precision; only displayed figures are rounded — money to two decimals (whole rupees per tola, where the table uses its whole-number format), weights to two decimals, percentages to one decimal. Where a guide and a calculator show the same quantity, they show the same rounded figure: if you ever find two that differ, tell us — that is a bug we want fixed.

Who checks the figures, and how often

The GoldCue Desk — the same desk that maintains the calculators — checks every figure on the site against this method before publication, and re-checks the whole site whenever the snapshot is refreshed. Spot-derived figures are regenerated from the engine rather than edited by hand; history figures are cross-checked between the LBMA fix-based series (via YCharts) and Money Metals’ average-closing-price series; the rupee rate is the State Bank interbank rate for the snapshot date. A refreshed snapshot is a new dated edition, and figures from two editions are never mixed on one page. If you find a figure that disagrees with this method or with another page, tell us: discrepancies are treated as bugs and corrected in the engine first, so the fix reaches every page at once.

What GoldCue is not

GoldCue is an information and calculation tool. It is not financial advice, not a price feed, and not a buyer or seller of gold. Prices move daily; always confirm the current spot price and the day’s local rate before buying, selling or lending against gold. See our disclaimer.