22K Gold Calculator

What 22K gold means

22K gold is 91.7% pure — 22 of 24 parts gold with a small measure of copper or silver for workability. In the United States you rarely see 22K in mainstream stores, but it dominates jewelry from South Asia and the Middle East: wedding bangles, bridal sets, chains, and coins bought in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, or the Gulf are overwhelmingly 22K gold. If you are pricing a collection that spans several karats, the main scrap gold calculator handles every purity; this page presets 22 karat for you.

Purity this high changes the selling conversation. With 14K, buyers argue about karat; with 22K gold, the stamp is standardized, the gold content is nearly pure, and the entire negotiation collapses into two numbers — the weight on the scale and the percentage of melt on offer. Everything on this page exists to make sure you know both before the buyer does.

The 916 hallmark

Instead of "22K", these pieces are typically stamped "916" — millesimal fineness for 91.6% purity. Indian jewelry often carries a BIS hallmark alongside the 916 mark. If your bangle or chain reads 916, enter its weight above with the karat set to 22 and you will get an accurate melt value.

A 916 stamp is a purity claim, not a guarantee — which is why the hallmarking system described below exists. And if a seller's scale and a buyer's scale disagree on a stamped piece, purity is rarely the issue; weight is. Bring your own reading.

How to read a BIS hallmark on Indian gold

Modern Indian jewelry carries a standardized BIS hallmark with three parts: the BIS logo, the fineness number (916 for 22K), and a six-character alphanumeric HUID code unique to the piece. The HUID can be looked up in the BIS Care app, which returns the registered jeweler and article details — useful reassurance when selling inherited gold with no paperwork. Older pieces may carry only a 916 or 22K stamp, or nothing at all; unmarked bangles from family collections are common, and any serious buyer will test them rather than refuse them.

When a hallmark is present, photograph it. A verifiable HUID lets an online buyer skip re-assay hedging, and documented purity tends to be quoted at the upper end of each payout band. When it is absent, an XRF scan or acid test at the counter settles purity in minutes — watch it happen rather than dropping your gold off.

How to calculate 22K gold value per gram

Divide the current spot price per troy ounce by 31.1035 for the pure-gold gram price, then multiply by 0.917. Because 22K is so close to pure, its per-gram value tracks the spot price closely — a 30-gram wedding bangle represents a substantial sum, which is exactly why gold jewelry doubles as family savings across South Asia.

A fast mental check: 22K is worth roughly 92% of the pure gold price. In the $4,000-per-ounce illustration used below, that means just under $118 per gram. Multiply by the weight of the piece in your hand and you have a defensible floor for any negotiation before a buyer says a word. The same math explains why 22K gold works as a savings vehicle: almost every dollar paid goes into gold rather than alloy, so resale recovery runs structurally higher than for Western karats.

Worked example: a 30-gram 22K gold bangle

Use a spot price of $4,000 per troy ounce for illustration. Pure gold comes to $4,000 ÷ 31.1035 = $128.60 per gram, and 22K gold to $128.60 × 0.917 = $117.93 per gram. A single 30-gram gold wedding bangle therefore melts at about $3,538 — heirloom sets running to multiple bangles multiply from there. Applying the payout tiers: a pawn shop at 55–70% would offer roughly $1,946–$2,477, a local jeweler at 70–85% about $2,477–$3,007, an online gold buyer at 80–95% around $2,830–$3,361, and a refiner at 95–98% up to $3,361–$3,467.

At these sums, percentage points are hundreds of dollars, and the gap between a typical pawn offer and a refiner payout on this one bangle can top $1,000. Weigh everything yourself, compute the melt value above at the live price, and collect at least two written quotes before selling your gold.

Selling 22K gold: weight is everything

High purity makes 22K gold soft. Bangles bend, clasps wear, and intricate work loses definition — none of which matters at sale time, because scrap buyers pay strictly by gold weight. Dents and deformation do not reduce your payout. What you will not get back is the making charge: the labor premium paid when the jewelry was bought is gone the moment you sell for scrap.

Because 22K gold lots tend to be heavy, they often qualify for the better payout tiers — online buyers at 80–95% of melt, refiners at 95–98%. Get more than one quote before parting with heirloom-weight pieces, and weigh everything yourself first: on a multi-bangle set, even a one-gram discrepancy at 91.7% purity is real money. Enter your own weight above so you walk in with an independent melt figure.

Stones, lac filler, and other weight traps

Traditional South Asian jewelry complicates the "pay by weight" rule. Kundan and polki pieces are built around a lac (resin) core, so a substantial share of their gross weight is not gold at all; buyers deduct for it, sometimes aggressively. Stone-set pieces raise the same issue — gems are settled separately or not at all — and meenakari enamel adds decorative weight with no melt value. For such pieces, expect the buyer's "net gold weight" to land well below the scale reading, and ask how the deduction was estimated.

Coins and small bars from Indian jewelers are the opposite case: they are often 24K rather than 22K, so price them with the 24k gold calculator instead. And whatever gold you sell, weigh it in grams first — the gold calculator in grams covers scale choice and accuracy — because at 91.7% purity, every disputed gram is worth more than a gram of any lower jewelry karat.

Frequently Asked Questions