Updated Daily · Live Spot Prices
Gold / Silver Ratio
How many ounces of silver it takes to buy one ounce of gold
: 1 (oz silver per oz gold)
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Historical Gold/Silver Ratio
| Period / Event | Ratio | Context |
|---|---|---|
| All-time low (1980) | ~17 | Silver Hunt Brothers squeeze |
| 50-year average | ~65 | Long-run historical mean |
| Pre-COVID average (2019) | ~85 | Above average, silver lagging gold |
| COVID peak (Apr 2020) | ~125 | All-time high in modern era |
| Silver spike (Feb 2021) | ~63 | Reddit WallStreetBets silver squeeze |
| Today (live) | — | Updated daily from spot prices |
Ratio Calculator
Convert between gold and silver by weight using today's live ratio.
What Is the Gold/Silver Ratio?
The gold-to-silver ratio is simply the price of gold divided by the price of silver. If gold trades at $3,000/oz and silver at $30/oz, the ratio is 100 — it takes 100 ounces of silver to buy one ounce of gold.
Historically, the ratio has averaged around 65 over the past 50 years. It briefly spiked to 125 during the COVID-19 crash in March–April 2020, and fell as low as 17 during the 1980 Hunt Brothers silver squeeze. Values above 80 have historically been followed by silver outperforming gold as the ratio mean-reverts.
How Investors Use It
Some investors use the ratio as a switching signal: sell gold and buy silver when the ratio is high (silver cheap), then switch back to gold when the ratio drops (silver expensive). This strategy works best over multi-year cycles and requires discipline to execute.
The ratio does not predict short-term price moves. Silver is more volatile than gold, with a smaller market and significant industrial demand (solar panels, electronics). This means silver can diverge from gold for extended periods.
How We Calculate It
We divide the live XAU/USD spot price by the live XAG/USD spot price, both sourced daily from GoldAPI.io. The ratio is updated once per day at 00:00 UTC. Prices are in USD per troy ounce (31.1035 grams).