What does XAU/USD mean?
XAU is the ISO 4217 code for one troy ounce of gold, and USD is the US dollar — so XAU/USD is the price of one troy ounce of gold in US dollars. It is the international spot benchmark the entire trade quotes from, and every other gold figure on this site is derived from it.
Gold $4,604.82 per troy oz · +1.66% on the session · last close
Spot source: Swissquote Bank · FX: Frankfurter (European Central Bank) (2026-08-21) · last close · how this is derived
The market is closed. This is the last close of the session that ended, not a live price.
Where the code XAU comes from
ISO 4217 is the standard that gives every currency a three-letter code, and it normally builds one from a country's two-letter ISO 3166 code plus a letter for the currency itself: US + D for the US dollar, IN + R for the Indian rupee. Gold belongs to no country, and codes that belong to no country are given an X in the first position. What follows is the chemical symbol: Au, from the Latin aurum.
| Code | What it is | Unit |
|---|---|---|
| XAU | Gold (aurum) | one troy ounce |
| XAG | Silver (argentum) | one troy ounce |
| XPT | Platinum | one troy ounce |
| XPD | Palladium | one troy ounce |
| XDR | IMF Special Drawing Rights | one SDR |
| XXX | The code for "no currency" | — |
The unit matters as much as the letters. XAU is not "gold" in the abstract — it is one troy ounce of it. That is why a gold quote needs no unit written after it, and why converting one into grams is the first thing anyone outside the wholesale trade has to do. Silver works the same way, which is what XAG/USD on the silver price page means.
How to read the pair
A quoted pair is always base / quote: how many units of the second thing one unit of the first thing costs. In XAU/USD, gold is the base and the dollar is the quote, so the number is dollars per ounce of gold. This is worth noticing, because in most currency pairs the dollar is the base — USD/INR, USD/JPY — and gold reverses the usual order.
One practical consequence: when XAU/USD rises, that can mean gold has become more valuable, or that the dollar has become less valuable, or both. A gold price is always a price in something. The same ounce quoted in rupees, euros or pounds can move in a different direction on the same day, purely because the currency moved — which is why the market conversions on this site hold the metal constant and let the currency do what it does.
The ounce is a troy ounce
A troy ounce is 31.1034768 grams, exactly. The ordinary avoirdupois ounce — the one on a kitchen scale — is 28.349523125 grams. The troy ounce is roughly 10% heavier, and the two are never interchangeable in a metal price. A troy pound is 12 troy ounces, not 16, which is the other place the system surprises people.
Because 31.1034768 is not a round number, none of the conversions below is either. Every per-gram, per-10-gram and per-kilogram gold figure you will ever see is this arithmetic:
usd_per_10g = usd_per_gram × 10 // the Indian quoting unit
usd_per_kg = usd_per_gram × 1000
usd_per_tola = usd_per_gram × 11.6638038
local_price = xau_usd × usd_local_rate // XAU/INR, XAU/EUR, XAU/GBP …
per_purity = per_unit × karat / 24 // 22K is exactly 22/24 of 24K
That is the whole distance between the ticker at the top of this page and a rate board in a jeweller's window — plus duty, tax and margin, which the next section is about.
One ticker, two prices
"The gold price" is really two numbers. The bid is what a buyer is offering, the ask is what a seller wants, and the gap between them is the spread. A single XAU/USD figure — including the headline one on this site — is normally the mid-point between the two, which is a convenient summary and not a price anyone transacts at. You buy at the ask and sell at the bid, always, which is why you can never buy and sell at the same number.
In the wholesale market that spread is a few tens of cents an ounce. By the time it reaches a retail counter it is a great deal wider, and the widening is the dealer's business model rather than a fault in the price.
Where and when XAU/USD trades
There is no gold exchange in the sense that there is a stock exchange. Spot gold is an over-the-counter market: banks and dealers trade with each other directly, centred on London, with settlement conventionally loco London two business days after the trade. Because there is no single venue, there is no single official spot price — two price sites can differ by a small amount at the same instant and both be quoting real markets. What they agree on is the level; what they disagree on is the last decimal and the timestamp.
The market runs almost around the clock from Sunday 22:00 UTC to Friday 21:00 UTC, and it is shut in between. Rather than pass a Saturday figure off as live, this site labels the state of its own feed — LIVE, CLOSED, DELAYED or NO DATA — and says which one applies underneath every price. What each label means is set out on the methodology page.
What purity XAU/USD refers to
The price is per troy ounce of fine gold — the pure metal content, not the gross weight of the bar it happens to be in. A London Good Delivery bar must be at least 995 parts gold per thousand and weighs roughly 400 ounces; it is priced on the gold in it, so a 995 bar and a 999.9 bar fetch the same price per fine ounce.
Karat rates follow from that by exact ratio, not by estimate: 24K is 999 fine, 22K is 916 fine and is exactly 22/24 of the 24K rate, 18K is 750 fine and exactly 18/24. Those fractions are the metal value only — before making charges, before hallmarking, before tax.
XAU/USD, the LBMA auction, and futures
Three different numbers are all called "the gold price", and they are not interchangeable.
| Price | What it is | Struck |
|---|---|---|
| XAU/USD spot | The continuous over-the-counter price for immediate delivery of unfabricated gold. | Continuously, ~23 hours a day |
| LBMA Gold Price | A published benchmark set in an electronic auction run by ICE Benchmark Administration, used to settle contracts and value holdings. | Twice a day, 10:30 and 15:00 London time |
| Gold futures | An exchange-traded contract to deliver 100 troy ounces on a specific future date. Normally trades a little above spot. | Continuously, per contract month |
The auction figure is a snapshot of the same market twice a day, so it tracks spot closely but is a different kind of number — a fixed benchmark rather than a live quote. Futures are a genuinely different instrument, and the gap between them and spot has an explanation with arithmetic behind it: gold spot price versus futures price works through what the difference is, why it exists, and when it stops behaving.
XAU in currencies other than the dollar
XAU/INR, XAU/EUR, XAU/GBP and the rest are not separate markets. They are XAU/USD multiplied by a currency rate — a cross rate — which is why a gold price in rupees can rise on a day the dollar price fell. This site converts at the European Central Bank's daily reference rates, so every non-dollar figure tracks the metal minute by minute while holding the exchange rate fixed until the ECB publishes the next one.
India is the exception on this site, and deliberately: the gold rate today in India is a landed retail figure carrying 6% import duty and a 0.5% trade premium on top of the converted spot price, because that is what sits between an imported bar and a shop counter. Everything else is a wholesale conversion. The distinction is spelled out under markets, and it is the single most common reason two gold sites appear to disagree about the same day.
What XAU/USD is not
- Not a price you can buy at. It is a wholesale benchmark for large unallocated transactions between institutions. Coins and small bars carry a dealer premium, often several percent.
- Not a jewellery price. A counter total adds making charges, wastage, hallmarking and tax on top of the metal. The jewellery price calculator shows the whole build-up.
- Not tax-inclusive. No figure on this site includes GST, VAT or sales tax. What applies where is listed under tax by market.
- Not a futures price. See spot versus futures — the two differ by the cost of carrying metal to the delivery date, and financial media quote both without always saying which.
- Not per gram. An ounce is 31.1034768 grams. Comparing an ounce quote with a per-gram rate off the top of your head is off by a factor of thirty-one.
XAU/USD on a trading platform
Retail brokers list XAU/USD alongside currency pairs, usually as a contract for difference or a spread bet rather than as metal you own. A standard lot is commonly 100 troy ounces, though it varies by broker, and positions are typically margined — meaning a small move in the underlying price produces a much larger move in the account.
XAU Ticker is an independent price board. It is not a bank, a broker, an investment firm or a bullion dealer, and nothing here is a recommendation to buy or sell. Leveraged products carry a real risk of losing more than the amount put in. See the risk disclaimer.
Where our XAU/USD figure comes from
International spot quotes in US dollars per troy ounce, polled continuously while the market is open, with the source and the timestamp of the quote printed directly beneath it. Nothing is hand-entered and nothing is smoothed. The methodology page lists every source, every constant and the date each was last checked — currently 2026-08-15. For the long view of where the number has been, the gold price history since 1960 publishes monthly averages and annual returns.
Frequently asked questions
What does XAU/USD mean?
XAU is the ISO 4217 code for one troy ounce of gold and USD is the US dollar, so XAU/USD is the price of one troy ounce of gold in US dollars — the international spot benchmark every other gold figure here is derived from.
Why does the code start with X?
Because ISO 4217 gives an X first letter to codes that belong to no single country. What follows is the chemical symbol — Au for gold, from the Latin aurum. Silver is XAG, platinum XPT, palladium XPD.
Is a troy ounce the same as a normal ounce?
No. A troy ounce is 31.1034768 g; the avoirdupois ounce used for food is 28.349523125 g. The troy ounce is about 10% heavier, and precious metals are always quoted in troy ounces.
Is XAU/USD the same as the gold spot price?
Yes — XAU/USD is the ticker for gold spot in dollars. It is not the futures price and not the twice-daily LBMA auction benchmark; see spot versus futures for how those differ.
Can I buy gold at the XAU/USD price?
No. It is a wholesale benchmark. A dealer sells above it and buys below it, a jeweller adds making charges, and most markets add duty or tax. A gap of several percent against a retail price is normal — the calculator shows where it comes from.
What purity does the price refer to?
Fine gold — the pure metal content, not the gross weight of a bar. Karat rates are exact fractions of the 24K figure: 22K is 22/24 of it, 18K is 18/24.
How do I get from XAU/USD to a price per gram?
Divide by 31.1034768. Multiply that by 10 for the Indian quoting unit, or by 1000 for a kilogram. The live grid at the top of this page does all three.
Rates are indicative wholesale figures and are not an offer to buy or sell. Read the methodology and the risk disclaimer.