Gold price on Dhanteras every year since 2015

Dhanteras is the single busiest gold-buying day of the Indian year. Jewellers stock up for weeks, banks run coin promotions, and families who buy gold only once a year buy it on this day. Dhanteras 2026 falls on Friday, 6 November, two days before Diwali on 8 November. So it's a good moment to look back at what the gold rate actually was on each Dhanteras over the last decade.

All the figures below come from this site's own daily price history, which follows the IBJA reference rate. They are the national rate per gram, metal value only: no making charges, no GST. Your city's rate sits slightly above it; see the city-wise rates for that.

The rate on every Dhanteras, 2015–2025

Two of those dates fell on a Saturday (22 October 2022 and 18 October 2025). IBJA doesn't publish a fix on weekends, so jewellers priced those days off the Friday rate, and the table does the same.

The headline is hard to miss. 24K gold was ₹2,321.73 per gram on Dhanteras 2015 and ₹12,027.48 on Dhanteras 2025, about 5.2 times as much. That works out to roughly 17.9% a year, compounded, over ten years. On 20 October 2026, 17 days before this year's Dhanteras, the rate was ₹14,594.02, another 21% above last year's festival price. Today's rate is ₹14,594.02 per gram (24K, 20 Oct 2026).

The same numbers for 22K jewellery gold

Most Dhanteras buying is jewellery, which is sold in 22K (916). The 22K rate is 91.67% of the 24K rate, so it moved in exactly the same proportion:

A 10 g 22K chain's metal value went from about ₹21,283 in 2015 to ₹1,10,252 in 2025. The bill was higher still: a typical 10% wastage, 12% making and GST add roughly a quarter on top. You can rebuild any year's bill with the jewellery calculator by typing that year's rate in place of today's.

What ₹1 lakh bought on Dhanteras

Another way to read the table is to fix the budget. At the 24K metal rate, before any charges, ₹1,00,000 bought:

The budget that bought a 40-gram set in 2015 bought about one heavy chain in 2025. If you're planning a purchase this year, the gold budget calculator works backwards from a rupee amount to the grams you can take home once wastage, making and GST are included.

Year-on-year: the festival is not the driver

If Dhanteras demand pushed prices up, you would expect the festival price to rise steadily every year. It doesn't. Look at the year-on-year column:

• Two years were down. Dhanteras 2017 was 2.6% cheaper than 2016, and 2021 was 5.4% cheaper than the pandemic-era peak of 2020.
• The big jumps came from outside India. The 32% rise into Dhanteras 2020 followed the global rush into gold during the pandemic. The 45% rise into 2024 and the 60% rise into 2025 came as central banks bought gold at a record pace and the rupee weakened against the dollar.
• Policy shows up too. The July 2024 Budget cut import duty from 15% to 6%, part of why Dhanteras 2024 was cheaper than it would otherwise have been. The duty went back up to 15% on 13 May 2026, and the 24K rate on this site jumped about 5% in a single day (₹15,398 to ₹16,200).

Festival demand does matter at the margin. Jewellers' premiums firm up and discounts disappear in the run-up, but the base rate is set by the international price, the rupee and duty. That's covered in more depth in what moves the gold rate in India.

What happened in the month after

A question that comes up every year is whether the price "falls after Dhanteras". Here is what the data shows, comparing the Dhanteras rate with the rate about 30 days later:

The rate was lower a month later in eight of the eleven years, but the moves were small, mostly under 5%, which is within an ordinary month's swing for gold. Eleven data points is far too few to call it a pattern, and nothing here says what 2026 will do. What it does say is that the Dhanteras price has rarely been a once-a-year bargain or a once-a-year peak. It's usually just the rate on that day.

Practical points for Dhanteras 2026

• Check the day's rate before you leave home. IBJA publishes its AM fix around 12:00 IST, and this site updates shortly after. On the morning of Dhanteras, jewellers' counter rates may still reflect the previous evening's fix.
• Compare the 22K rate, not the 24K one. Jewellery is billed at the 22K (916) rate; coins and bars at 24K (999).
• Read the bill line by line. Most of the difference between two jewellers' quotes comes from wastage and making charges, not the gold rate. The guide to reading a jewellery bill walks through each line.
• Check the hallmark. Every piece must carry a BIS mark, purity grade and six-character HUID. You can verify the HUID in the BIS Care app before you pay; the HUID guide shows how.

This article reports historical data only. It is not a forecast and not a recommendation to buy or wait.