Gold Pip Calculator (XAUUSD)

Short answer: On gold (XAUUSD) with the common 0.1 pip, one pip is worth $10 on 1 lot, $1 on 0.1 lot and $0.10 on 0.01 lot. A full $1 move in the gold price is worth $100 per lot. Pick your lot size above and the calculator does the rest. For currency pairs, use the main pip value calculator.

Gold pip values for a USD account and a 100-ounce contract.

How the gold pip value is calculated

Pip value = lots × contract size × pip size.

On a standard gold contract of 100 troy ounces and a pip of 0.1:

1 lot × 100 oz × 0.1 = $10 per pip

Because gold is priced in US dollars, nothing needs converting for a USD account. That is why the pip value on gold stays the same at any gold price, unlike USD/JPY or cross pairs where it moves with the exchange rate.

Gold pip value by lot size

Lot size	Ounces	Per 0.1 pip	Per 0.01 point	Per $1 move
1.00	100	$10.00	$1.00	$100
0.50	50	$5.00	$0.50	$50
0.10	10	$1.00	$0.10	$10
0.05	5	$0.50	$0.05	$5
0.01	1	$0.10	$0.01	$1

The last column is the easiest to remember: lots × $100 for every dollar the gold price moves.

0.1 or 0.01: which is a gold pip?

There is no single standard, and that is where most confusion starts.

• 0.1 as a pip. Common in trading education and many broker guides. A move from 2,400.0 to 2,401.0 is 10 pips.
• 0.01 as a point. Gold is usually quoted with two decimals, so MetaTrader counts each 0.01 as one point. The same move from 2,400.00 to 2,401.00 is 100 points.

Some traders also use the word “pip” for the 0.01 step. If someone says “100 pips on gold”, ask which one they mean: it is either a $10 move or a $1 move. The dollars for the same price move never change, only the count does. To read pips on any chart, see what a pip is.

Worked examples

Example 1: profit on 0.05 lot. Gold rises from 2,400.0 to 2,418.0. The move is 18.0, or 180 pips at 0.1 each. 180 × $10 × 0.05 = $90. Check: $18 move × 5 ounces = $90.

Example 2: a loss on 0.2 lot. You buy at 2,410.0 and the price falls to 2,404.5. That is 5.5, or 55 pips. 55 × $10 × 0.2 = $110 lost, before spread and commission.

Example 3: pip count under the 0.01 convention. The same 18.0 move in Example 1 is 1,800 points. At $1 per point per lot, 1,800 × $1 × 0.05 = $90. Same money, ten times the count.

These are arithmetic examples, not price forecasts.

Sizing a gold trade from your stop

Pip value tells you what a move is worth. To choose the lot size, start from the money you are willing to lose:

Lots = risk in USD ÷ (stop distance in $ × 100)

With a $1,000 account risking 1% ($10) and a stop $5.00 away from the entry: 10 ÷ (5 × 100) = 0.02 lot. A wider stop of $15.00 gives 10 ÷ 1,500 = 0.0067, which rounds down to 0.01 lot, and even that risks $15, more than planned. Gold moves several dollars in a normal session, so small accounts often cannot fit a sensible stop at 1% risk. The lot size calculator runs this for you, and risk per trade explains why the percentage matters more than the lot.

Margin is a separate number

Pip value does not depend on the gold price, but margin does. Margin = lots × 100 oz × gold price ÷ leverage. At an example price of 2,400 and 1:100 leverage, 1 lot needs 240,000 ÷ 100 = $2,400 of margin, and 0.01 lot needs $24. A higher gold price raises the margin, not the pip value. Many brokers also set lower leverage on gold than on major pairs. See margin vs leverage for how the two relate.

Check your broker’s contract size

The figures on this page assume the common 100-ounce lot. Before you trade, open the symbol specification in your platform (in MetaTrader, right-click XAUUSD and choose Specification) and check:

• Contract size. If it is not 100, scale every figure on this page by contract size ÷ 100.
• Digits. Two decimals means one point is 0.01; three decimals means one point is 0.001.
• Account currency. Cent accounts show balances and profits in cents, so $10 per pip appears as 1,000 cents.

Common mistakes

• Mixing up conventions. Reading a “50-pip stop” from a 0.01-pip source as 50 × 0.1 makes the stop ten times wider than intended.
• Using forex lot habits on gold. 1 lot of EUR/USD and 1 lot of gold are both $10 per pip, but gold moves many more pips per day, so the same lot carries far more risk.
• Ignoring the spread. A gold spread of 0.20 to 0.40 is 2 to 4 pips at 0.1 each, a cost you pay on every trade. Compare it in trading costs explained.

Bottom line

On a 100-ounce gold contract, one 0.1 pip is $10 per lot and a $1 move is $100 per lot. Confirm whether your source counts pips at 0.1 or 0.01, check your broker’s contract size, and size the lot from your stop, not from the pip value alone. CFDs on gold are high-risk leveraged products and most retail traders lose money, so only trade money you can afford to lose.