Scrap gold prices in the UK today, by carat

Gold spot price per gram today, by carat

Gold spot price today (4 October 2026): fine gold was £100.87 per gram, about £3,138 per troy ounce. At that spot price the metal content of 9ct gold is worth £37.83 a gram and 18ct £75.66 a gram. These are spot values of the metal content, not a GoldPaid buying price: any buyer pays less than spot, because refining, assay and margin come out of the metal value. GoldPaid publishes no buying rates; your written offer is set after XRF testing your own items.

The short answer

How carat drives scrap gold value

Scrap gold is valued by how much fine gold it contains. 9ct is 37.5% pure (marked 375), 14ct is 58.5% (585), 18ct is 75% (750), 22ct is 91.7% (916) and 24ct is 99.9% (999). A gram of 18ct holds roughly twice the fine gold of a gram of 9ct, so, weight for weight, it is worth about twice as much. Mixed carats are separated and weighed on their own before valuing, so each part of a lot is paid for what it actually is. GoldPaid confirms the purity by XRF and shows the calculation in a written offer before you decide.

What moves the UK scrap gold price

A UK scrap gold rate starts from the international gold price converted into pounds. GoldPaid’s margin is already inside the figure you are offered, so nothing further is taken off. Two markets set the gold price between them. One is gold itself, benchmarked by the LBMA Gold Price, set twice each London business day. The other is sterling. Because gold is quoted in dollars, a fall in the pound lifts the rate a UK seller gets even on a day when the dollar price has not moved at all.

• Central banks and jewellery demand. Reserve buying by central banks and jewellery demand across Asia are the heaviest pulls on supply, with recycled scrap flowing back the other way.
• Interest rates and the dollar. Gold pays no income, so when real interest rates fall or the dollar weakens, investment demand tends to firm the price.
• Nervous markets. Geopolitical events, banking stress and inflation expectations all push money towards gold as a perceived safe haven.
• The pound. Sterling does as much work in your final figure as gold does.

None of which is an argument for waiting. Gold falls about as often as it rises, and calling the turn is a different job altogether from clearing out scrap you have no use for. Your offer is priced against the rate on the day the parcel is assessed, and that rate is printed in the written breakdown.

Why the firm offer follows an XRF test

A market rate is a starting point, not an offer. Real scrap rarely matches its own hallmarks. Solder at a clasp joint is usually a lower carat than the body of the chain. Repairs were done over the years in whatever alloy the jeweller had to hand. Stones and base-metal fittings add weight that is not gold at all, and an unhallmarked piece can turn out to be solid 22ct or plated brass. That is why a firm GoldPaid offer only ever follows an XRF assay of the items themselves, and why a buyer willing to commit to a figure without seeing what you have is either guessing or planning to revise it later.

A worked example on a mixed parcel

Mixed carats are separated before anything is priced, so take a worked example: 18.4g of 9ct (a snapped curb chain, a bent signet ring, two odd earrings) and 6.2g of 18ct (a broken pendant). At 37.5% pure the 9ct portion holds 6.9g of fine gold. At 75% the 18ct portion holds 4.65g. Each portion is weighed and assayed on its own and priced against the live market for its own carat, then the two figures are added. Nothing is averaged into one blended figure for the parcel. Your written breakdown shows both rows, the weight, the rate used and the total, before you are asked to decide anything. The full method is on how we value gold, with a deeper walkthrough on scrap gold value.

Checking the underlying price yourself

You do not have to take a buyer’s word for where the underlying price sits. The LBMA Gold Price is set twice each London business day, at 10.30am and 3pm UK time, in an electronic auction administered by ICE Benchmark Administration, and the LBMA website publishes it with a delay, to midnight London time on the day it is set. GoldPaid prices against the live gold market rather than that benchmark, converted to pounds at the prevailing GBP/USD exchange rate. Divide a per-ounce figure by 31.1035 and multiply by your carat purity and you have the fine-gold value any buyer is working beneath. Assay, refining, carriage and margin account for the gap. The rate in your written scrap offer is the rate on the day your items are assessed, not last week’s and not a headline figure quoted to win the enquiry.

Are scrap gold prices the same everywhere in the UK?

The wholesale rate is national. There is no London versus Manchester versus Glasgow rate for the metal itself. Buyers differ on their margin, on whether they assay at all, and on how transparently the figure is shown. A high-street shop has rent, staff and rates that come out of what it can pay; a postal-only buyer carries less of that overhead and that often (not always) shows up in the figure. The honest comparison is whatever rate you see in your written offer. That is the figure to compare, and why gold recycling prices differ between buyers sets out the five variables that produce the spread.

GoldPaid serves every UK postcode by post. Your scrap goes by Royal Mail Special Delivery on a prepaid label, you receive a written offer back, and you decide. The full UK-wide route is on sell gold by post UK and the specific scrap process is on sell scrap gold.

Common questions