Live gold price (XAU/USD)

What the spot price is and how it is set

The spot gold price is the price for immediate delivery of one troy ounce in US dollars, quoted as XAU/USD. It is set continuously by trading across global venues and by the London over-the-counter market, not by a single exchange. The reference price shown here, around 4275.0, is a snapshot of that market, so it moves whenever the underlying quotes move.

Because gold is priced in US dollars, the number you see is the USD price, not an Australian dollar price. To convert, you apply the AUD/USD rate, which means the A$ value of your position changes even when the gold price is flat. That is why the calculators ask for your account currency.

Why the broker's price differs: the spread

The broker's price differs from the raw spot number because it includes the spread, which is the gap between the bid and the ask. You buy at the ask and sell at the bid, so a new position starts slightly behind the mid-market price. The size of that gap depends on the broker, the account type and market conditions.

The spread is not fixed through the day. It tends to widen when liquidity thins, such as the rollover period or around major US data releases, and it can widen sharply in fast markets. Check the live quote against the spot reference so you know what the round-trip cost will be before you size a trade.

How to read the change and the refresh

The change figure shows how far the current price has moved from a prior reference, usually the previous session close, and it is expressed in dollars and sometimes as a percentage. A positive change means gold is up in US dollar terms; that does not automatically mean it is up in A$ if the AUD/USD rate moved the other way.

The price refreshes as new quotes arrive, so the figure you see is only current at the moment of the last update. If you are calculating a position, use the price you can actually trade at, and refresh before you act. A stale price on a fast day is a common source of sizing error.

How this price feeds the calculators

Every calculator on this site uses the price you enter, so the live quote is the starting point for position size, pip value, margin, profit and loss, and pivot points. Position size uses the distance from entry to stop; pip value uses the 0.01 pip definition; margin uses the price and leverage; profit and loss uses entry and exit; pivots use the prior session's high, low and close.

Because gold is quoted in USD, the calculators also need your account currency to express results in A$. Enter the current price and the AUD/USD rate, and the outputs will match the risk you actually intend to take rather than a number that only looks right in US dollars.

Where the XAU/USD figure on this page comes from and what its latency means

The XAU/USD figure on this page is a reference price sourced from institutional gold market data and published after a short processing delay. It reflects the last traded or quoted level captured by that data feed, not a live streaming quote from your broker. Latency means the number you see may be seconds behind the current market, so treat it as an indicative level for context and calculation rather than an executable price.

Latency matters most when gold is moving quickly, such as around US data releases or the daily close. A delay of even a few seconds can leave the displayed figure several dollars away from where XAU/USD is actually trading, because one pip on gold is 0.01 and price can travel many pips in that window. Use the reference to understand the market's direction, then confirm the live quote inside your platform before placing any order.

The reference price is not a promise of execution and carries no obligation from any broker. It is a published snapshot with its own timestamp, and its usefulness depends on when that timestamp was taken. If you need the current tradeable level, the only authoritative source is the bid and ask showing on your platform at the moment you click. The figure here is a starting point, not the final word.

Why a broker's XAU/USD quote differs from a reference price

A broker's XAU/USD quote differs from a reference price because the broker prices off its own liquidity and risk management, not off a single public feed. The broker's quote includes its spread, any hedging cost, and the buffer it applies for the size and volatility of the order. A reference price is a neutral market level; a broker's quote is a tradeable offer that already has the broker's costs built in, so the two will rarely match to the cent.

The gap also depends on the broker's execution model and the time of day. During liquid sessions the difference may be small, while around rollover, news events, or thin holiday trade the broker may widen its quote to manage risk. Australian clients dealing through FxPro UK Limited should note that the entity serving them is offshore, and its pricing reflects that entity's liquidity arrangements rather than an ASIC-supervised Australian book.

You should expect the broker's quote to sit on the other side of the reference price in a way that works against you on entry. That is normal and is not a sign of error. The practical check is to compare the bid and ask on your platform with the reference figure and understand that the difference is the cost of trading, not a discrepancy to arbitrage.

Bid, ask and the gap between them on gold

The bid is the price at which you can sell XAU/USD, and the ask is the price at which you can buy; the gap between them is the spread. On gold, one pip is 0.01, so a spread of, say, 0.20 dollars is 20 pips. The bid is always lower than the ask, and the gap is the broker's compensation for facilitating the trade. You pay it implicitly every time you open a position, because you buy at the ask and sell at the bid.

The size of the gap depends on the broker, the account type, the time of day and market conditions. It is not a fixed number you can state in advance, and it can widen sharply when liquidity thins. For a standard lot of 100 oz, each 0.01 move in price is $1, so the spread has a direct dollar cost per lot. A 0.10-lot position carries one-tenth of that cost, which is why position size and spread awareness belong together.

To read the gap correctly, look at the ask minus the bid on your platform at the moment you intend to trade. Do not rely on a remembered or advertised figure, because the live spread is what you actually pay. If the gap looks unusually wide, the market is telling you something about conditions, and the sensible response is to wait or reduce size rather than assume the quote will normalise immediately.

What a stale XAU/USD quote looks like and how to respond

A stale quote is one that has stopped updating while the market has moved on, so the displayed bid and ask no longer reflect where XAU/USD can actually be traded. It typically appears as a frozen price during a fast move, a bid-ask gap that suddenly looks too wide or too narrow, or a platform that shows no ticks for an unusual period. The danger is acting on a level that no longer exists in the market.

The first response to a stale quote is to stop and check a second source, such as another platform or a reputable market feed, before sending any order. If the quote is stale, your order may be rejected, filled at a different price, or filled with slippage. On gold, where one pip is 0.01 and a standard lot is 100 oz, even a small stale gap can translate into a meaningful dollar difference on a 0.10-lot position.

Prevention is better than reaction. Trade during liquid hours when quotes update reliably, avoid sending orders in the first seconds after major news, and keep an eye on the platform's connection status. If you are using the reference price on this page, remember it is not a live quote and can itself be delayed; the platform's bid and ask remain the only figures your order can fill against.

How often this XAU/USD figure refreshes and how to spot a stale one

This XAU/USD figure refreshes on a short interval set by the data provider, not tick by tick, so it is a periodically updated reference rather than a streaming quote. The exact interval depends on the feed and can vary, which is why the page should be read as a snapshot with a timestamp. If the timestamp has not moved while gold is clearly active, the figure is stale and should not be trusted for timing.

A stale figure on this page looks like a price that stays identical across refreshes during a period when other sources show movement, or a change value that resets oddly. Because gold trades nearly around the clock from Monday to Friday, a reference that freezes during the Asian, London or New York session is a warning sign. Check the update time and compare with your platform before drawing conclusions.

The practical rule is to use this page for orientation and the calculator inputs, and to use your broker's live bid and ask for execution. If the figure here appears stale, refresh the page and cross-check with a second source. Never place an order on the assumption that the reference price is current, because execution happens at the broker's quote, not at the reference.

Spot reference versus the broker's tradeable quote, and weekend pricing

A spot reference is a published market level for XAU/USD used for context and calculation, while the broker's tradeable quote is the actual bid and ask you can deal on. The reference has no spread obligation and no execution duty; the broker's quote embeds the spread and the broker's risk terms. When you place an order, it fills against the broker's quote, so the reference price is informative but never the price you receive.

Weekend and holiday pricing widens the distinction. Gold's spot market is closed from late Friday to late Sunday in most sessions, and public holidays thin liquidity further. During those periods a broker may show a quote for risk management or may restrict trading, and any displayed price can be far from the last reference level. Do not assume the reference price on this page is meaningful when the underlying market is shut.

For Australian readers, the weekend gap is a real risk: a position held over the close can be marked against a quote that jumps when trading resumes. FxPro is licensed by the FCA (UK) and CySEC. It does not hold an ASIC licence, so Australian residents deal with an offshore entity — check this before funding. Fund via PayID or bank transfer in A$, and size positions so a weekend gap does not threaten your account.

Why two XAU/USD sources disagree by a few cents, and which quote your order actually fills against

Two XAU/USD figures a few cents apart are normal because each one is built from a different pool of liquidity, sampled at a different moment. A reference price is an aggregate of dealer and venue inputs, often calculated on a fixed schedule; a broker's quote is the price its own liquidity providers are streaming right now. Neither is wrong. The cents of difference reflect timing, the venues included, and how each source handles the bid-ask gap, so treat a small mismatch as expected rather than as an error on either page.

Your order fills against your broker's tradeable quote, not against the reference figure you are reading here. When you press buy on gold, the execution price is the ask your broker is streaming at that instant, plus any commission or markup built into that account. The reference number is useful for context and for sanity-checking a chart, but it has no authority over your fill. If the two differ by a few cents, the broker's ask is the only one that settles your trade, so plan entries around it.

The practical test is to compare the two on the same screen at the same second, then look at the direction of travel. If the reference sits above your broker's bid while price is rising, the gap is mostly timing; if it persists in a quiet market, the difference is structural and belongs to the spread and the venues each side uses. Either way, size the position off the broker's quote, because that is the number your margin and your exit are calculated from.

What the bid-ask gap on gold does around the daily close

The gap between bid and ask on XAU/USD typically widens around the daily close and rollover as liquidity providers step back and positions are carried into the next session. Fewer active quotes mean the best bid and best ask sit further apart, so the cost of entering or exiting at that hour is higher than during the main session. The exact width depends on the venue, the hour and the broker's own liquidity arrangements, so watch it rather than assume a figure.

For a position already open, a wider gap shows up immediately as a larger unrealised loss on the spread alone, even if the mid price has not moved. On 1 lot of gold that is 100 oz, and with one pip equal to 0.01, every extra cent of gap is a dollar of notional cost per lot. That is why stops placed tight to the market just before the close can be triggered by the gap rather than by a genuine move in price, which is a spread event, not a directional one.

The response is to avoid routine entries and exits in the minutes around the daily close unless the trade needs it, and to place stops with the expected widening in mind rather than at the tightest level seen earlier in the day. If you must trade that window, use a limit order where the platform allows it, so you are not filled at a momentarily stretched ask. Check the gap again once the new session is underway before judging whether a stop level still makes sense.

Why a broker's XAU/USD quote differs from a reference price, and what that means for an Australian order

A broker's XAU/USD quote differs from a reference price because it is a tradeable two-way price built from that broker's liquidity providers, with the spread and any account-level markup already inside it. A reference price is a single indicative mid, usually aggregated across venues and published on a schedule. The broker must quote something it can actually fill, so it prices in the cost of doing so. The size of the difference depends on the broker's liquidity arrangements, the account type and the hour, not on a fixed rule.

For readers in Australia, the entity matters as much as the number. FxPro is licensed by the FCA (UK) and CySEC. It does not hold an ASIC licence, so Australian residents deal with an offshore entity — check this before funding. That structure does not change how the quote is built, but it does mean the contractual counterparty to your gold order is offshore, and funding runs through PayID or bank transfer in Australian dollars rather than through a domestic licensed arrangement.

Margin is calculated from the broker's tradeable price, so the reference figure never sets your requirement. At the maximum leverage available to Australian clients, up to 1:200, a 0.10-lot gold position needs about $85.50 margin. Treat 1:200 as a cap rather than a setting to aim at, because the same leverage that frees up margin magnifies the loss on the same move. Confirm the live ask on MT4, MT5, cTrader or the FxPro app before sizing anything.