Live ·
22ct gold price per gram
22ct gold is R2 063,04 per gram in South Africa at 11 Sept 2026, 06:13 SAST. Twenty-two-carat gold is 91.67% pure, stamped 916, and it is the highest karat that is still practical to wear. It is the standard in Indian and Middle-Eastern jewellery traditions, where a piece is bought partly as ornament and partly as stored value, and it is also the alloy the Krugerrand is struck in. Because so much of the weight is gold, 22ct is the karat where the difference between a fair offer and a poor one is largest in rand.
Also written 22k gold, 22 carat gold, 916 gold · all the same purity
| Weight | Fine gold | Metal value |
|---|---|---|
| 1 g | 0.92 g | R2 063 |
| 2 g | 1.83 g | R4 126 |
| 5 g | 4.58 g | R10 315 |
| 10 g | 9.17 g | R20 630 |
| 20 g | 18.33 g | R41 261 |
| 50 g | 45.83 g | R103 152 |
22ct = 91.67% gold · any weight →
Nearly pure, and soft because of it
At 91.67% gold, a 22ct piece holds almost two and a half times the metal of the same weight in 9ct. That is why it carries the deep colour people associate with gold, and also why it scratches and bends more easily: the alloy that gives jewellery its hardness is only 8% of the piece. Traditions that favour 22ct generally accept that trade-off deliberately, because the object is meant to hold value as much as to be worn.
It is also the Krugerrand alloy. A one-ounce Krugerrand is 22ct and weighs 33.93 g, of which exactly one troy ounce is fine gold and the balance is copper, which is what gives the coin its reddish tone and its durability. If you are selling a Krugerrand rather than jewellery, the coin pages are the right ones, because a coin is resold as a coin rather than melted.
Where the rand difference bites hardest
The higher the karat, the more a percentage point of the buyer’s margin is worth to you. On a 20 g 9ct chain, the gap between an offer at 70% of melt and one at 90% is a fraction of what the same gap costs on 20 g of 22ct, because there is so much more metal in the second piece. If you own 22ct, getting a second quote is worth proportionally more than it is for anyone else.
How this number is worked out
Every karat on this site is the pure gold price multiplied by that karat's legal purity, and nothing else. Pure gold is R2 250,58 a gram at 11 Sept 2026, 06:13 SAST, so 22ct at 91.67% comes to R2 063,04. That is an ounce at R64 168 and a kilogram at R2 063 036. You can reproduce all of it with a calculator, which is the point: see the methodology, take the numbers from our public price feed, or run any weight through the calculator.
The metal value is not the payout. A buyer pays a percentage of it, and that percentage is the only thing worth shopping around. Our study of 4 295 reviews across 34 South African gold buyers found the disputes are almost never about the advertised rate.
The Goldza Project Team
Common questions
22ct gold, answered
- What is 916 gold?
- 916 is the hallmark for 22ct gold: 916 parts of pure gold per thousand, or 91.67%. It is very common in Indian and Middle-Eastern jewellery and is also the alloy used for the Krugerrand.
- Is 22ct gold better than 24ct?
- Better for wearing, not purer. 24ct is nearly pure gold and is too soft to hold a setting or survive daily wear, which is why bullion is 24ct and jewellery generally is not. 22ct adds about 8% of other metal for durability while keeping most of the gold content, which is why it is the highest karat commonly worn.
- Is 22k the same as 22ct?
- Yes. "K" and "ct" both mean carat. A piece marked 22K, 22ct or 916 is the same purity: 91.67% gold.