Gold Price

The number displayed at the top of this page is the live gold spot price, quoted in US dollars per troy ounce and derived from XAU/USD futures and spot trading. Gold trades nearly continuously on weekdays, from Sunday evening through Friday afternoon Eastern time, so the gold price today can move outside typical US business hours. Spot price is the wholesale benchmark — the raw commodity value of gold with no minting or distribution built in. The physical gold price, what you actually pay for a coin or bar, or receive when you sell one, is the spot price plus or minus a premium covering minting, distribution, and dealer margin. Checking today's gold price on this page gives you the baseline number every physical gold transaction is built on.

Gold's spot price moves with several interlocking forces rather than any single driver. Central bank policy and interest rates matter directly: gold pays no yield, so it competes more or less effectively against bonds and cash depending on where rates sit. Inflation expectations play a similar role, since gold is widely used as a hedge against a currency's declining purchasing power. The strength of the US dollar matters too, because gold is priced in dollars — a weaker dollar generally makes gold cheaper in other currencies and can support demand. Central banks are also active buyers of gold reserves, and jewelry and investment demand from major markets add further pressure in either direction. Geopolitical uncertainty rounds out the list, as gold carries a long history as a safe-haven asset in unstable periods.

In practice, the gap between spot and physical price varies by product. Government-minted bullion coins like the American Gold Eagle or the Krugerrand typically carry a higher premium than bars from private refiners such as PAMP Suisse, reflecting the cost of striking, distributing, and guaranteeing a coin's legal-tender status. Dealers also quote a buy price and a sell price around spot, with the spread between them covering the cost of doing business. That's why the spot chart on this page is the reference point for valuing anything made of gold — a bullion coin, a cast bar, or karat jewelry, which trades at the value of its fine-gold content rather than the full spot price.

Use the calculator above to convert any weight in troy ounces into an estimated value at the current spot price — for coins and bars like the American Gold Eagle, the Gold Buffalo, the Canadian Maple Leaf, or a gold bar, or for a fraction of an ounce of jewelry. Lone Star Coins, a second-generation, family-owned dealer in San Antonio, Texas, buys and sells physical gold coins and bars priced directly off this live spot market. Whether you're buying, selling, or simply keeping track, the gold price today on this page is the reference point for every physical gold transaction that follows.