Gold Price History
Gold was fixed at $35 an ounce until 1971, when the US ended dollar convertibility and the price began to float. Since then it has gone through two great bull markets, a two-decade slump and, from 2024, a run of record highs that took it through $3,000 in March 2025 and $4,000 in October 2025. The all-time chart and milestone table below trace the path.
Gold price now, for comparison
| Weight & purity | Live price |
|---|---|
| Gold · 1 troy ounce (XAU/USD) | live |
| Gold · 1 gram (24K, USD) | live |
International spot equivalents for pure (24K) gold, with no dealer premium, tax or making charge. Karat rows = 24K price × purity. How we calculate
Key milestones
| Date | Event | Approx. price per oz |
|---|---|---|
| 1934 | US Gold Reserve Act sets the official price | $35 |
| August 1971 | US suspends conversion of dollars into gold, ending the Bretton Woods link | $35 official |
| End of 1974 | Private gold ownership becomes legal again in the US | — |
| January 1980 | Peak of the 1970s bull market | ≈$850 |
| 1999–2001 | Bottom of a two-decade bear market | ≈$255 |
| September 2011 | Peak after the financial crisis | ≈$1,920 |
| August 2020 | First move above $2,000 during the pandemic | >$2,000 |
| 2024 | Repeated record highs through the year | new records |
| March 2025 | Crosses $3,000 for the first time | $3,000 |
| October 2025 | Crosses $4,000 for the first time | $4,000 |
Figures are rounded nominal US dollar prices. Exact highs and lows differ slightly between the London benchmark, spot quotes and futures.
1971–1980: from fixed price to first bull market
Under the Bretton Woods system, foreign central banks could exchange dollars for US gold at $35 an ounce. As US gold reserves shrank, the US closed that "gold window" in August 1971, and within a few years gold floated freely. The 1970s brought high inflation, two oil shocks and a weak dollar. Gold climbed more than twentyfold from the official price to about $850 in January 1980, driven at the end by inflation fears and geopolitical crises.
1980–2001: the long decline
When the US Federal Reserve raised interest rates sharply to crush inflation, holding gold, which pays no interest, became expensive. Gold fell for most of the next two decades. In the late 1990s several European central banks sold reserves and mining companies sold future production forward, adding supply. The price bottomed near $255 around 1999–2001, roughly 70% below the 1980 peak, and even further below it after inflation.
2001–2011: the second bull market
A weaker dollar, rising Chinese and Indian demand and new ways to invest drove the next rally. The first US-listed gold ETF launched in 2004, letting investors buy gold through a stock account. After the 2008 financial crisis, near-zero interest rates and quantitative easing pushed gold to about $1,920 in September 2011.
2011–2019: correction and recovery
As the US economy recovered and markets anticipated higher rates, gold fell sharply in 2013 and drifted to a low near $1,050 in late 2015. It spent the next few years mostly between roughly $1,100 and $1,400 before turning higher in 2019 as the Federal Reserve began cutting rates again.
2020 to today: records in every currency
Pandemic-era rate cuts and stimulus took gold above $2,000 in August 2020. After a pause while rates rose in 2022, central-bank buying, which had become unusually heavy, and expectations of US rate cuts drove a series of records in 2024. The rally accelerated in 2025, with gold crossing $3,000 in March and $4,000 in October, amid trade-policy uncertainty, a softer dollar, renewed ETF inflows and continued central-bank purchases. In Indian rupees the climb was steeper still, because the rupee weakened against the dollar over the same period. See central banks and gold and gold price in 2026 for the current backdrop.
Nominal vs inflation-adjusted
A dollar in 1980 bought far more than a dollar today, so the $850 peak was much higher in real terms than it looks. Adjusted with US consumer prices, that peak stood as the real-terms record for decades and was only overtaken in the 2025 rally, by most estimates. When comparing eras, use a log-scale chart (switch the gold price chart to monthly candles and log scale) and think in percentage moves rather than dollars.
What history suggests, and what it doesn't
Gold has had long periods of stagnation as well as spectacular gains: an investor who bought at the 1980 peak waited about 27 years to see that nominal price again. Its strongest runs have coincided with negative real interest rates, a weak dollar or financial stress. None of this predicts the next move. For the forces that drive the price day to day, read why the gold price changes daily.