10K vs 14K vs 18K gold: how much is each worth?

10K is 41.7% gold, 14K is 58.5% and 18K is 75%. What that means in dollars per gram, what a buyer will actually pay for each, and why the price gap in a jewelry shop is far bigger than the gold behind it.

Sep 27, 2026 · By Calcelate Team

The value of gold jewelry as metal comes down to one number: how much of it is gold. 10K is 41.7% gold, 14K is 58.5%, 18K is 75% and 24K is 99.9%. The rest of the alloy is other metals, and nobody buying gold pays for those.

So 14K has 40% more gold in it than 10K, gram for gram, and 18K has 28% more than 14K. At an example gold price of $3,300 per troy ounce, a gram of 10K holds $44.24 of gold, a gram of 14K $62.07 and a gram of 18K $79.57. That is not today’s price, just the example the calculator starts from. The real one moves every trading day, and every figure below moves with it in proportion.

How much is 10K, 14K and 18K gold worth per gram?

Karat is parts of gold out of 24. The FTC’s buyer guide puts it plainly: a piece marked 14K is 14 parts gold mixed with 10 parts of another metal. The mark column is the same content written in thousandths.

The two systems do not quite agree. 14 out of 24 is 58.33%, but the thousandths mark for 14K is 585, and the World Gold Council lists it as .583 (.585) for that reason. The table uses the stamped figure, because the mark is a minimum: 585 means at least 585 parts gold in 1,000. 10K works out at 10 ÷ 24 = 41.67%, marked 417.

To work out a piece yourself: weight in grams, times the gold content, times the spot price per troy ounce divided by 31.1. The scrap gold calculator does it in one step and takes pennyweight and troy ounces as well.

In the US, gold buyers and jewelers often weigh scrap in pennyweight rather than grams. A pennyweight, written dwt, is one twentieth of a troy ounce, about 1.555 g; New York refiner Manhattan Gold & Silver calls it the standard unit of the precious metals trade, and dealers such as Golden Eagle Coins list their scrap prices per gram and per pennyweight side by side. That is why the table has both columns. At the example price a pennyweight of 14K holds $96.53 of gold, 10K $68.81 and 18K $123.75. If a quote says “per dwt”, compare it with that column; if the buyer weighs in pennyweight but pays per gram, the numbers will not line up, and that is worth asking about.

The price difference between karats, in dollars

Each step up the usual ladder adds almost the same money. Going from 10K to 14K adds $17.82 of gold per gram at the example price, and going from 14K to 18K adds $17.51. On a 10 g chain that is $178.24 and $175.06: real money, but not a different league.

The percentages differ even though the dollars barely do, because each step starts from a bigger base. 10K to 14K adds 16.8 points of gold to 41.7, which is 40% more; 14K to 18K adds 16.5 points to 58.5, which is only 28% more.

10K against 24K is the widest gap people ask about. Pure gold holds 2.4 times the gold of 10K, $61.75 more per gram at the example price. The catch, as the FTC notes, is that pure gold is soft, which is why jewelry gold is mixed with other metals for hardness and durability in the first place.

Your spot price is not ours

Gold is quoted in US dollars per troy ounce, and the value of a gram of any karat is a fixed share of that. Find the row nearest today’s quote and read across. If the price rises 10%, every cell rises 10%; the gaps between karats scale the same way.

What a gold buyer actually pays

The figures above are metal value. Nobody who buys scrap pays all of it: they have to test, refine and make a margin, so they offer a share. A 10 g 14K piece holds $620.67 of gold at the example price. At 75%, the calculator’s default payout, that is $465.50. A pawn shop at 40–60% offers $248 to $372 for the same piece.

The ranges in that table are rough norms, not a published tariff, and they are market-specific: how buyers price scrap differs from one country to the next, and from one shop to the one across the street. What is published is refiners’ own schedules. Mid-States Recycling’s schedule for karat gold, for example, pays for 98% of the recovered gold on a lot of 1 to 29 troy ounces, less a flat $50 melt and assay charge. That flat charge is why refiners are for larger lots and not for a single ring.

The karat does not change the percentage. A buyer paying 75% pays 75% on 10K and on 18K alike, so the ratios between karats in the first table hold at the counter too: a gram of 18K still sells for 28% more than a gram of 14K.

Why the shop price gap is bigger than the gold gap

Take a 4 g band. Moving it from 14K to 18K adds $70.02 of gold at the example price. The same design cast in 18K comes out slightly heavier, because gold is heavier than the metals it replaces, so the real difference is a little more. But if two otherwise identical rings are several hundred dollars apart in a shop, most of that gap is not gold.

The rest is what a retail price is made of: the making, the design, the brand and the shop’s margin. None of it comes back when you sell. A buyer weighs the piece, tests the karat and pays a share of the metal, so unless a piece is wanted as jewelry, the 18K ring you paid a premium for resells for its gold content like any other.

That also answers whether 10K is cheap. It is less gold, not bad gold. More of it is alloy, and hardness is what the alloy is there for, so it stands up to wear better than 18K; by the gram it is worth proportionally less. Whether it is the right buy depends on what you want to pay for: the metal, or the look.

Reading the stamp: 10K, 417, 14K, 585, 18K, 750

A piece may carry the karat (10K, 14K, 18K) or the thousandths (417, 585, 750), or both. They mean the same thing. What they do not mean is the same everywhere.

10K is an American standard. The British Hallmarking Council’s list of legal finenesses for gold is 999, 990, 916, 750, 585 and 375: no 417. In the UK, Ireland, France, Austria and Portugal, the World Gold Council notes, 9 carat is the lowest that may be called gold at all. So in those countries you will meet 9 carat (375) where an American shop would sell 10K.

Two cautions. A stamp is a claim, and serious buyers test the metal rather than trust it. And marks like GF, GP or RGP mean gold-filled or plated: the FTC describes those as a layer of at least 10 karat gold on a base metal, which is worth almost nothing as scrap.

The short version

Per gram of metal, 18K is worth 28% more than 14K, 14K is worth 40% more than 10K, and 24K is worth 2.4 times 10K. At any gold price, those ratios hold. Put your own weight, karat and today’s spot price into the scrap gold calculator for the exact figure, and ask every buyer for their price per gram at your karat: that is the only way to compare offers.