The Gold Price

Data Sources & Methodology

Last updated: October 1, 2026

Every price on this site comes from a named source, carries the time it was recorded at that source, and is checked automatically for freshness. This page lists those sources, how often we collect from them, and the arithmetic we apply before a number reaches you.

World spot prices

Gold (XAU), silver (XAG), platinum (XPT) and palladium (XPD) spot prices in US dollars per troy ounce are collected every 15 minutes. Our primary feed is gold-api.com, with metals.dev as a fallback that is only used when the primary feed goes silent. Daily open, high and low values come from Yahoo Finance market data.

Spot is the price for immediate delivery of large wholesale bars. It is a benchmark, not a price you can buy a coin or a piece of jewellery at — retail prices sit above it (see "Local premiums" below).

Futures

COMEX gold futures contracts (front month and the following months) are collected from Yahoo Finance market data. Futures quotes can differ from spot by the cost of carry, so the two are shown separately and never mixed.

National and local gold prices

Where a country has a recognised domestic reference, we publish that reference rather than converting spot:

For countries without a domestic reference, the local price is world spot converted at the current exchange rate and expressed in the unit people there actually use (grams, tola, baht, tael, lượng, don).

Exchange rates

Currency conversions use rates from Open Exchange Rates, refreshed every 4 hours. Conversions always go through the US-dollar spot price, so every currency on the site is consistent with every other.

Local premiums

Where we show a domestic price "above world spot", we convert spot into the same currency, unit and purity as the local quote (for example 22K per 10 g in rupees) and report the difference as a percentage. Premiums reflect import duties, taxes, dealer margin and local supply and demand. They change daily and can be large — Vietnam's SJC bar has historically traded well above world spot.

Timestamps and freshness

We store two times for every price: when it was recorded at the source, and when we collected it. Pages show the source time ("updated 5 minutes ago"), so you can always see how old a figure is. Every source is monitored and we are alerted when one stops updating. Weekend and holiday gaps are normal for exchange-based prices.

Editorial content

Guides and city notes (bazaars, typical karat, making charges, buying seasons) are written from the sources cited in each article. Numbers inside guides are pulled live from the same price data described above, so they never go stale.

Corrections

If a price or a fact looks wrong, email [email protected] with the page and what you expected to see. We check the upstream source and fix confirmed errors.

Prices are provided for information only and are not an offer to buy or sell. See our Financial Disclaimer.