Every figure on this site traces back to a named source and a published calculation. This page documents the whole chain — where the data comes from, how often it refreshes, the exact arithmetic applied to it, and the limitations we know about. Nothing here is a black box.
1. Our data provider
Spot gold and silver prices are provided by GoldPriceZ.com. We consume their public REST API, documented at https://goldpricez.com/about/api. This attribution is published in accordance with their API terms of service.
The feed supplies, for each supported currency:
- Spot gold per troy ounce in US dollars, with bid, ask and the session high and low
- The live US dollar exchange rate for the target currency
- Gold prices in that currency across several weight units
- Silver prices per gram and per troy ounce, with session high and low
- A GMT timestamp for the last upstream update
We currently pull 13 currencies: PKR, USD, GBP, EUR, AED, SAR, CAD, AUD, QAR, OMR, KWD, BHD, INR.
2. Update frequency
We poll on a schedule rather than on page load. This respects the provider's rate limits and keeps pages fast, because every visitor is served from our own database rather than waiting on a third-party API.
- PKR and USD — every 10 minutes
- All other currencies — every 30 minutes
- Daily close — recorded once per day to build the history and chart series
- Intraday high and low — updated on every successful fetch
Prices are never fetched live in your browser, and our API key is never exposed to the client. Every page displays its own last-updated timestamp so you can judge freshness yourself.
3. How a local price is calculated
The API publishes international spot only. Converting that into a realistic local retail rate takes three steps, and we apply them in this order.
Step 1 — Import parity
The spot price in US dollars per troy ounce is multiplied by the live exchange rate supplied in the same payload, then divided into grams. This is the theoretical import-parity price: what the metal alone would cost with no duty, freight or margin.
A precision detail most sites get wrong. Our provider publishes a gram conversion factor of
0.0321 troy ounces per gram. The true figure is 0.032150746, because one troy ounce
is exactly 31.1034768 grams. Taking their pre-computed gram, kilogram and tola fields at face value makes
every price roughly 0.16% too low — several hundred rupees on a single tola. We therefore
anchor on the troy-ounce price, which is exact, and perform every weight conversion ourselves.
Step 2 — National market premium
Physical gold in Pakistan does not trade at parity. Import duty, freight, insurance, the gap between the interbank and open-market dollar, and local demand all push the real price above the theoretical figure. We apply a national market premium of 2.35% to reach the benchmark floor price, and 4.50% for silver.
This premium is calibrated against the published quotes of the All Pakistan Sarafa Gems & Jewellers Association for the Karachi Sarafa Bazaar, and is reviewed every trading day. It is a single, openly stated number rather than a hidden fudge factor — if our rates drift from the market, this is the dial that gets adjusted.
Which market are you reading? This matters more than it sounds. Pakistani rate sites quote different markets without saying so, and the gap between them is real money. We benchmark to the Karachi Sarafa Bazaar because it is the point of import and therefore the national floor. If you are buying in Rawalpindi or Lahore, the number you see on a shop board will sit above ours by that city's premium — which we publish, per city, rather than folding it into one figure.
Step 3 — City premium
Karachi is the point of entry for imported bullion and therefore carries the lowest domestic cost base in the country; it sets the national floor. Every other city adds a premium covering secured transport, insurance in transit, storage security and local dealer margin. These premiums are stored per city, typically range from Rs 40 to Rs 210 per tola, and are listed in full on our rate reference page.
For international cities we apply a percentage premium instead, since those markets track parity far more closely and quote in grams rather than tola.
4. Karat derivation
Each karat is derived from the 24K price by its purity ratio — the same convention jewellers and Sarafa associations use:
- 24K — hallmark 999.9, priced at 100.0% of the 24K rate
- 22K — hallmark 916, priced at 91.7% of the 24K rate
- 21K — hallmark 875, priced at 87.5% of the 24K rate
- 20K — hallmark 833, priced at 83.3% of the 24K rate
- 18K — hallmark 750, priced at 75.0% of the 24K rate
- 14K — hallmark 585, priced at 58.3% of the 24K rate
- 10K — hallmark 417, priced at 41.7% of the 24K rate
5. Bid, ask and the spread
The bidding price (what a dealer pays you) and the asking price (what you pay) are the mid price minus and plus half the prevailing spread. Our default spread is Rs 939 per tola for 24K, scaled proportionally for lower karats.
This spread is a modelled retail figure, not a feed value. Wholesale spot bid/ask is far tighter than anything a retail counter offers, so applying it directly would understate what you actually pay. Where we show raw spot bid and ask — on the home page global benchmark block — those are the provider's own figures and are labelled as such.
6. Weight units
Pakistan quotes gold in tola. We use the market-standard tola of 11.6638 grams (0.375 troy ounces).
- 1 tola = 11.6638 g = 12 masha = 96 ratti
- 1 masha = 0.9719833 g
- 1 ratti = 0.1214979 g
- 1 troy ounce = 31.1034768 g ≈ 2.667 tola
- 1 kilogram = 1,000 g ≈ 85.735 tola
Some feeds publish a "Pakistan tola" of 12.48 grams (0.40125 troy ounces). That unit is not used in Pakistani markets and quoting it overstates prices by roughly seven percent. We derive every unit from the gram price ourselves, so our tola figures match what a jeweller in Karachi actually quotes.
7. Manual overrides
Where a published Sarafa Association quote differs materially from our calculated figure, an administrator can enter the official number directly. Overridden rates are stored with a timestamp and expire at the end of the day, after which the automated calculation resumes. Every other karat is re-derived from the overridden 24K figure so the whole page stays internally consistent.
8. What we deliberately do not publish
We only publish figures that update themselves. If a number cannot be refreshed automatically, it does not go on the site — a stale value presented as live is worse than no value at all. That currently rules out:
- Platinum and palladium — not covered by our data feed
- Open-market currency counter rates — we publish interbank cross-rates derived from the feed's own exchange data, but not hand-typed buy/sell columns
- Exchange volumes and commodity indicators — no automated source
For the same reason, charts and history tables stay hidden until enough real daily closes have accumulated: two for the history table, five for the chart. We do not pre-populate them with a modelled or estimated series.
9. Known limitations
- These are estimates, not dealer quotes. No dealer is obliged to transact at a price published here.
- Retail prices vary by shop. Making charges, wastage percentages, design premiums and tax all sit on top of the bullion rate.
- The local premium is a model. It is calibrated and openly stated, but it is an approximation of a market that quotes by consensus rather than by formula.
- Upstream delay is possible. Provider outages, network conditions and exchange-rate timing can all introduce lag. The timestamp on each page reflects our last successful fetch.
10. Corrections
If you believe a figure on this site is wrong, please tell us. Include the page, the figure you saw and the figure you expected, and we will investigate — usually the same working day.
See also our disclaimer and terms of use.