How Much Is Gold by the Pound?

TODAY'S ANSWER

How Much Is a Pound of Gold Worth Today?

A pound of pure gold is worth $60,808 as of September 29, 2026. That figure is the gold spot price, $4,169.70 per troy ounce, multiplied by 14.583, the number of troy ounces in an ordinary pound. It's the value of the metal alone, before any dealer's markup, and it moves every time the gold market does.

Here's the same arithmetic for the weights people ask about most:

Two things change the answer for real-world gold. The first is purity. The figures above are for pure (24-karat) gold. A pound of 22-karat coin gold is worth $55,741, and a pound of 14-karat jewelry gold is worth $35,471, because only part of the weight is gold. The second is which way you're trading. If you buy, you'll pay a little more than these numbers; if you sell, you'll usually get a little less. Both are covered further down this page.

For the full per-weight table, from half a pound to a hundred, see our gold price per pound page. For any other weight or karat, use the gold price per pound calculator.

WHAT MOVES IT

What Moves the Price of a Pound of Gold

The per-pound price is just the spot price in a bigger unit, so everything that moves spot moves it by the same percentage. Four points clear up most of the confusion about where the number comes from:

1. Spot is a wholesale price. It's what one troy ounce of pure gold trades for on the global market, for immediate delivery. Refiners, banks and large dealers trade near it. Retail buyers don't; they pay a premium on top, covered in the next section.
2. It moves nearly around the clock. Gold trades almost continuously from Sunday evening to Friday afternoon (US time), so the price changes minute by minute on weekdays and sits still at weekends. We rebuild this site every 6 hours and stamp the exact time of each figure, and on an open page the headline price re-checks itself while you read.
3. The hero and the chart use two related sources. The big number at the top is spot, from gold-api.com. The chart plots COMEX gold futures, the exchange contract most dealers watch, because it has a clean daily history going back decades. The two normally sit close together; today the futures price is $4,204.80 an ounce, a gap of +$35.10. We label both rather than blending them.
4. Big moves are measured in thousands per pound. Because a pound holds almost 15 ounces, a $100 move in the ounce price is about a $1,458 move in the pound price. The chart above shows how far that adds up over months and years. Gold's highest futures close on record is $5,318.40 an ounce ($77,560 a pound), set in January 2026.

What drives spot itself is a long argument, but the usual suspects are interest rates and the US dollar, central-bank buying, inflation expectations, and demand for a safe place to park money when markets are nervous. None of those change the arithmetic: whatever an ounce is worth, a pound is worth 14.583 times as much.

BUYING

How to Buy Gold by the Pound in 4 Steps

1. Turn pounds into ounces. A pound is 14.583 troy ounces, and dealers price everything in ounces. A pound's worth is about fifteen 1 oz coins, or one 10 oz bar plus four or five 1 oz pieces.
2. Choose bars, coins or a mix. Bars cost the least over spot; government coins such as the American Gold Eagle cost a little more but are recognized by every buyer, which makes them easy to sell a few at a time.
3. Get the all-in price in writing. That's the premium per ounce, shipping, insurance and any payment-method surcharge. Run it through the premium calculator before you commit.
4. Decide where it will live. A pound of gold fits in the palm of your hand, but it's worth $60,808. Plan for a home safe, a bank box or a depository, and for insurance. Our buying guide covers each option, including holding gold in an IRA.