Gold Bar Sizes

Understanding the weight and size of gold bars

You’ll find gold bars come in a wide range of standard weights, from as little as 1 gram up to massive 400 troy ounce units. The most traded bar sizes are 1 gram, 10 grams, 100 grams, 1 kilogram, 1 troy ounce, and 10 troy ounces. (Remember, a troy ounce isn’t the same as the ounces used in groceries, it’s about 31.1 grams, and it’s what precious metals dealers use.)

Different refiners and mints cater to different buyers, so some produce tiny bars suited for people starting out, while others focus on large bars bought by banks or funds. Bars are made as either cast or minted products. If you’re curious about the largest type, the 400-ounce bar (roughly 12.4 kilograms) is accepted as the international wholesale market standard, known as an LBMA Good Delivery bar. That’s a format that banks and bullion dealers recognize worldwide. LBMA is short for the London Bullion Market Association.

How gold bar size changes the premium you pay

Premium means anything you pay on top of the spot price. The spot price is just the gold’s raw market value, before anyone adds on costs for production or handling. Premiums are usually given as a percent over spot. You’ll notice that smaller bars tend to have a higher percentage premium than big bars.

This comes down to cost. No matter the size, making and packaging each bar carries its own fixed expenses. Imagine gold is at 100 per gram, one 1-kilogram bar is valued at 100,000, and a 10-gram bar at 1,000. If a dealer charges 20 each time, that’s 2 percent of the small bar, but a much smaller fraction for the big one.

The specific premium still varies quite a lot by dealer, the brand of bar, and moves in the gold market itself. You should always total up your costs, don’t count on size alone to work out value.

Thinking about flexibility when picking your bar size

The bar size also plays a part in how easily you can sell later. With small bars, you’ve got the option to sell just one or a few at a time, and these are simple for dealers and new buyers to check. Larger bars are usually less expensive per gram, but you can’t split one and fewer buyers will want to take a huge bar off your hands in one go.

Some people like to buy a few smaller bars so they’re free to sell a part of their investment if they need to. Others look for bigger bars to keep costs as low as possible for the gold itself, especially if they’re holding long term. It depends on your situation. Gold’s price moves up and down, and you risk losing money if it drops before you make a sale. If you’re undecided, take a look at our comparison of gold bars and coins for more detail.

Frequently asked questions