Gold Spot Price Today

The gold spot priceis the price at which gold changes hands for immediate delivery — “on the spot” — in the wholesale market. It is quoted in US dollars per troy ounce under the symbol XAU/USD, and it refers to 24-karat gold (99.9% pure) in standard London Good Delivery bars. Every gold price in the world — from a tola in Karachi to a gram in Dubai to a coin in New York — starts from this one number, converted by the exchange rate and adjusted for purity, weight and local costs.

The spot price is set continuously by trading, not by any single authority. The two pillars of the market are the London over-the-counter (OTC) market, organised around the London Bullion Market Association (LBMA), and the COMEX futures exchange in New York. The LBMA also publishes an official benchmark, the LBMA Gold Price, twice each London business day (10:30 AM and 3:00 PM), which banks, miners and central banks use to settle contracts. Between those benchmarks, the spot ticks every second while the market is open.

Why the spot price moves

Gold is priced in dollars, so the dollar itself is the first driver: when the dollar strengthens, gold usually becomes more expensive for buyers in other currencies and demand softens, and vice versa. Interest rates matter because gold pays no yield — when rates fall, holding gold costs less relative to bonds. Then come inflation expectations, central-bank buying (which has run at historic levels in recent years), jewellery demand from India and China, and safe-haven flows whenever geopolitics or financial markets turn uncertain. Most days the move is small — a fraction of a percent — but the drivers above are what turn small moves into trends.

Spot price vs. the price you actually pay

Nobody buys gold at the spot price. A bullion dealer adds a small premium over spot; a jeweller adds making charges, wastage, import duty and tax. In some markets the gap is tiny (a fraction of a percent for a large bar in Singapore or Dubai); in others it is large — India’s landed benchmark, for example, runs well above the pure spot conversion because of import duty, GST and local premiums. That is why this site shows local prices per country rather than a single converted number: the spot is the starting point, not the shelf price. See how the gold price is calculated for the full step-by-step, and gold price by country to compare every market.