Karat Gold Price + Scrap Calculator
Pure 24K gold is $145.02/gram at today's $4,510.50/troy-oz spot. 14K (58.3% gold) is worth $84.59/gram. Use the calculator below for any karat, weight, and unit.
Live karat gold prices
What does karat mean?
Karat (abbreviated K or kt) measures the gold purity of an alloy as parts-per-24. Pure gold is 24K — 100% gold. 14K is 14 parts gold to 10 parts other metals (copper, silver, nickel, zinc), or 58.3% gold by weight. 18K is 75% gold, 10K is 41.7% gold. The lower the karat, the more alloy and the harder (and cheaper per gram) the resulting metal — that's why most US engagement rings are 14K or 18K rather than 24K, which is too soft for daily-wear jewelry. The exact same rules apply whether the piece is yellow, white, or rose gold; the color comes from the alloy mix, not the gold content.
Karat vs carat
"Karat" and "carat" sound identical and get confused constantly. Karat (K or kt) measures gold purity. Carat (ct) measures the weight of a gemstone — one carat equals 0.2 grams. A "1-carat diamond ring set in 14K gold" has a 0.2g diamond mounted in a 58.3%-pure gold band. The two units have nothing to do with each other; the spelling collision is a historical accident. Some jewelry-trade copy uses "carat" for gold purity too (mostly UK/EU), but in the US the convention is karat for gold, carat for gems. This calculator uses karat throughout.
Why karat matters when selling jewelry or scrap
If you're selling jewelry or scrap, the karat stamp on the piece (often inside a ring shank, behind a pendant bail, or on a clasp) directly determines what it's worth. A 10g 18K chain contains 7.5g of pure gold; the same 10g chain stamped 10K contains only 4.17g of pure gold — almost half as much. At the same gold spot, the 18K piece is worth ~1.8× the 10K piece. Pawn shops and refiners both pay against the karat stamp, so identifying the stamp correctly is the first step. If a piece has no stamp or you're unsure, a jeweler can acid-test it for a few dollars; below 10K is typically considered "gold-plated" or "gold-filled" rather than solid gold.
Pawn shop vs refiner offers
Pawn shops and scrap dealers typically pay 70-85% of the melt value for jewelry and scrap gold; refiners may pay 90-95% for bulk lots once you exceed their minimum (often 1+ troy ounce of pure gold equivalent, which is ~57g of 14K). The pawn-shop margin covers handling, sorting, and the risk that a piece tests below its stamped karat (occasionally happens with vintage or imported jewelry). The refiner spread is tighter because they batch many sellers' material into bulk melt assays. The calculator above shows the typical pawn-shop range — for refiner quotes, contact a few directly and shop the spread the same way you'd shop a dealer when buying bullion.
Karat gold FAQ
What is 14K gold worth per gram today?
14K gold is 58.3% pure gold. To compute its per-gram value, divide the current gold spot price (per troy ounce) by 31.1034768 grams per troy ounce, then multiply by 0.5833. At a $3,000/oz gold spot, 14K is worth roughly $56.27 per gram of pure-gold content (the calculator above pulls the live spot and does this math for you, plus the typical pawn-shop scrap range).
How is karat gold priced?
Karat gold is priced as: (mass in grams ÷ 31.1034768) × purity × current gold spot price per troy ounce. The purity comes from the karat stamp: 10K = 0.4167, 14K = 0.5833, 18K = 0.7500, 22K = 0.9167, 24K = 1.0000. Multiply that by the troy-ounce equivalent of the weight and the live gold spot. The calculator above does this in real time as you adjust inputs.
What is the difference between 10K, 14K, 18K, 22K, and 24K?
Each karat number represents parts-per-24 of pure gold in the alloy. 10K is 41.7% gold (10/24); 14K is 58.3% gold; 18K is 75%; 22K is 91.7%; 24K is 99.99%+ pure gold. Lower karats are harder and cheaper per piece but contain less actual gold per gram. Higher karats are softer and more valuable per gram but scratch and bend more easily — that's why investment-grade gold bars and coins (American Buffalo, Canadian Maple Leaf) are .9999 fine 24K, but engagement rings rarely are.
How much will a pawn shop pay for my 14K gold?
Pawn shops typically pay 70-85% of the melt value of the gold content. For a 10g 14K chain at $3,000/oz gold spot, the melt value is roughly $562; the pawn-shop offer typically lands between $394 and $478. Refiners pay closer to 90-95% of melt but usually require a minimum bulk lot (often ~1 troy ounce of pure-gold equivalent, or roughly 57g of 14K). Shop around — pawn-shop offers vary widely; getting 3-4 quotes is normal.
Is 14kt the same as 14K?
Yes — 14K, 14kt, and 14 karat all describe the same purity: 58.3% gold by weight. The variations are stylistic (US jewelry stamps often read "14K"; some imports use "14KT"; long-form copy spells out "14 karat"). Same applies to 10K/10kt/10 karat, 18K/18kt/18 karat, etc. The calculator treats all three spellings as equivalent, and the karat-specific landing pages use all three to surface SEO variations.
Does white gold or rose gold weigh less than yellow gold?
Color doesn't change the gold content. A 14K piece is 58.3% gold whether the alloy is yellow (gold + copper + silver), white (gold + nickel or palladium), or rose (gold + extra copper). The same 10g piece carries the same 5.83g of pure gold regardless of color. What does differ is the non-gold portion's value — but at melt, scrap dealers buy on the gold content alone, so the color is cosmetic at the buy-counter.
Is gold-filled or gold-plated jewelry worth anything in scrap?
Gold-plated jewelry has a very thin layer of gold (often measured in microns) over a base metal core; melt value is typically pennies, not dollars. Gold-filled is heavier (usually 5% or 10% gold by weight, bonded to a base core) and has measurable scrap value but well below solid karat gold. Both are usually marked: 1/20 14K GF means 5% 14K-gold-filled. Refiners specialize in processing gold-filled at scale; pawn shops rarely buy it. This calculator is scoped to solid karat gold (10K and up); gold-filled values require a different calculation.
How does this calculator handle pennyweight (dwt)?
A pennyweight (dwt) is 1/20 of a troy ounce, or 1.55517384 grams exactly. It's the traditional jewelry-trade weight unit in the US — many scrap quotes are stated in dollars-per-pennyweight rather than dollars-per-gram. The calculator above supports dwt as a third weight unit (toggle the radio above the weight input). 1 troy ounce = 20 dwt = 31.1034768 grams; 1 gram ≈ 0.6430 dwt.