Understand 24K, 22K, 21K and 18K gold, and see the live price for each one.
Karat is the measure of gold purity. Pure gold is 24 karat (24K). Because pure gold is soft, most jewellery is mixed with other metals, and the karat number says how many parts out of 24 are gold. 22K is 22 parts gold, or 91.6%, and 18K is 18 parts, or 75%. The lower the karat, the harder the piece and the lower the price per gram.
The price of gold itself is the same everywhere. What changes between karats is how much gold is in each gram. To get the price of any karat, take the 24K price and multiply it by the karat divided by 24. For example, 22K is 22/24, or about 91.7% of the 24K price. That is only the value of the gold in the piece, and the shop adds making charges and tax on top.
Used for bars, coins and investment gold, and for traditional jewellery in a few markets. See the 24K gold price. It is the benchmark price on which every other karat is based.
The jewellery standard in India, the UAE and many South Asian and Southeast Asian markets. See the 22K gold price.
The favourite in Saudi Arabia, Egypt and several Arab markets, balancing purity and strength. See the 21K gold price.
Harder and often used for diamond and fashion pieces in Europe, the Americas, Africa and parts of Asia. See the 18K gold price.
Our country pages open on the karat that is most common for local jewellery. Among the countries on the site: 24K is the default in Pakistan, Nepal, South Africa, Singapore, Indonesia, China, Hong Kong, Japan, Australia, United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Eurozone, Botswana and 50 more; 22K in Dubai, Qatar, Kuwait, Oman, India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Türkiye, Malaysia, Mauritius, Afghanistan, Brunei, Maldives; 21K in Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Iraq, Lebanon, Libya, Ethiopia, Djibouti, Mauritania, Palestine, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and 1 more; and 18K in Morocco, Nigeria, Kenya, Philippines, Tunisia, Algeria, Ghana, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, Rwanda, Senegal, Côte d'Ivoire, Cameroon and 63 more.
All karat pages show the live price in your local currency, detected from your location, per gram, ounce, tola and kilo. To work out a price for a particular piece, use the gold calculator or the jewellery price calculator. To understand the difference between the two most common karats, read 22K vs 24K gold.
