Methodology — How we calculate gold prices
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Every number on this site is derived from observable, third-party market data. Below is exactly how it is sourced, transformed and presented.
Spot gold (XAU/USD)
Gold, silver, platinum and palladium spot prices come from Swissquote's XAU/USD (and XAG, XPT, XPD) spot feed; the server re-reads it at least every five minutes, and that is the price a page opens with. While a page stays open, the gold price then moves with live PAXG/USD quotes from Binance, Coinbase and Kraken, taking the median of the three so a single venue cannot skew it. PAX Gold (PAXG) is a token backed 1:1 by allocated gold held in London Good Delivery bars and trades close to spot, usually within a few dollars an ounce. The day's change and range come from the COMEX gold future (via Yahoo Finance), rescaled to spot.
Karat prices (24K, 22K, 21K, 18K, 14K)
Karat prices per gram are computed as spot ounce price ÷ 31.1035 g × the karat's gold content: 24K is counted as pure gold (100%), 22K as 91.7%, 21K as 87.5%, 18K as 75% and 14K as 58.3%. No retailer premium, making charge, refining loss or VAT is added; these are pure spot equivalents, so a jeweller will quote above them.
FX rates
Conversion into the 51 local currencies we cover uses the open-source fawazahmed0/currency-api feed of daily mid-market rates. We re-read it every few hours and apply no retail spread, so confirm the counter rate with your bank before a transaction.
Silver, platinum, palladium
Silver (XAG), platinum (XPT) and palladium (XPD) spot prices come from the Swissquote spot feed and refresh every few minutes; the daily change and day range come from COMEX futures (via Yahoo Finance). These are not WebSocket-streamed because the underlying markets are less liquid than gold; a few minutes is sufficient.
Historical data
Historical daily OHLC for gold is sourced from Yahoo Finance via query1.finance.yahoo.com for the GC=F (COMEX gold futures) and XAU=X tickers. Data is cached for 24 hours.
Known limitations
1) Spot is an international reference, not the LBMA Gold Price or any local exchange's price. 2) FX rates are daily mid-market rates; your bank's retail rate will differ. 3) Karat prices exclude retailer premium, making charges, refining loss and VAT/tax.
