Gold purity in India is sold in three common grades — 24K, 22K and 18K — and the choice is not just about cost. It affects durability, the look of the piece, and crucially how much you recover when you sell or exchange it. Here is what each grade really means and when to pick it.
24K (999 fine) — pure gold
24-karat gold is 99.9% pure, carrying the 999 hallmark. It holds the full metal value at the IBJA rate, which makes it the standard for coins, bars, digital gold and Sovereign Gold Bonds. But pure gold is soft — it bends and scratches easily — so it is rarely used for daily-wear jewellery. Buy 24K when your goal is investment and you want every rupee in the metal, not in the design.
22K (916 hallmark) — the Indian jewellery standard
22-karat gold is 91.6% pure — hence the 916 hallmark — with the remaining 8.4% made up of harder metals like copper and silver for strength. This is the workhorse of Indian jewellery: almost all hallmarked chains, bangles and wedding sets are 22K. It keeps the rich yellow colour and most of the value of pure gold while being durable enough to wear every day. For traditional jewellery you intend to keep or pass on, 22K is almost always the right answer.
18K (750 hallmark) — for stones and modern designs
18-karat gold is 75% pure (the 750 hallmark) and noticeably harder than 22K. That hardness is exactly what diamond and gemstone jewellery needs, because it holds prongs and settings securely. It is also the standard for branded and designer pieces and is available in white and rose tones. The trade-off is lower metal value and weaker resale demand in the traditional market, so 18K makes most sense when you are buying for the design or the stones rather than the gold itself.
How purity affects resale
When you sell or exchange old gold, the jeweller values it on its pure gold content, not its sticker weight. A 10-gram 22K chain contains 9.16 grams of pure gold; a 10-gram 18K piece contains only 7.5 grams. That is why 22K consistently fetches more on exchange than 18K of the same weight, and why investment buyers stick to 24K. Making charges, by contrast, are almost never recovered on resale — they are the cost of turning metal into a finished piece.
Always check the hallmark
Whatever purity you choose, every genuine piece sold in India must carry a BIS hallmark and a six-digit HUID (Hallmark Unique Identification) number, which you can verify in the BIS Care app. Before you pay, confirm the karat, weigh the piece, and run the numbers through the jewellery bill calculator so you know exactly how much is metal, how much is making, and how much is GST. You can check the live gold rate for your city on the same page.