Gold Price in Switzerland: CHF Rates & Buying Guide

A kilo of fine gold costs CHF 110,830 in Switzerland today, and one troy ounce costs CHF 3,447. Those are the two figures Swiss buyers search for far more often than the per-gram number, because the domestic market is built around kilo bars and ounce coins rather than gram jewellery. The working rate behind both is CHF 110.83 per gram of 24K, which you can check against the live gold rate in Switzerland before you walk into any counter.

Gold Price in Switzerland Today: Gram, Ounce and Kilo in CHF

Every Swiss price starts from the same place: world spot in dollars, converted at the franc rate. Spot is $4,258.60 per troy ounce, which is $136.92 per gram. Multiply by 0.8095 and you get CHF 110.83 per gram of pure gold.

From there the arithmetic is mechanical. An ounce is 31.1035 g, so 31.1035 x 110.83 = CHF 3,447. A kilo is simply 1,000 x 110.83 = CHF 110,830. There is no Swiss premium baked into the metal itself, only into the product you buy.

Swiss dealers quote investment bars in kilos and ounces, and jewellery in grams by karat. If you are pricing a piece rather than a bar, use the karat table below and remember that a stamped 750 piece contains exactly 75% fine gold. Compare any quote against the gold price per kilogram and the gold price per gram so you know what the metal alone is worth.

Why Swiss Gold Costs the Same but Resells Better

Switzerland refines an outsized share of the world's gold. Valcambi, PAMP Suisse, Argor-Heraeus and Metalor are all Swiss, and their bars circulate in every major market. That industry story is covered separately in our piece on the Swiss gold refining industry, so it is worth stating the practical consequence instead of retelling it.

The consequence is that a Swiss retail buyer pays the same world spot as a buyer in Frankfurt, London or Dubai. Convert the German and British per-gram figures back into dollars and they land on $136.9 as well. Refining capacity does not discount the metal for the country it sits in.

What Switzerland does give you is access and spread. Bank counters still deal in physical gold, dealer bid-ask spreads on kilo bars are among the tightest anywhere, and the most recognised brands in the world sit on the shelf domestically at low premium rather than being imported at a markup.

Swiss VAT: Gold Exempt, Silver Standard-Rated

Investment-grade gold is currently exempt from Swiss VAT. That covers bars and coins meeting the accepted fineness and form tests, and it is the reason a kilo bar can be bought and sold at close to metal value. Jewellery is a different matter and is taxed as a manufactured good, so confirm the treatment of any specific item before you assume it is exempt.

Silver gets no such relief. It is standard-rated at the ordinary Swiss VAT rate, currently 8.1%, which is the same asymmetry British buyers face. The tax is charged on the full purchase price on the way in, and you do not get it back on the way out.

In percentage terms silver starts life 8.1% underwater against its own spot price, before any dealer premium. Silver is CHF 1.62 per gram at a spot of $2.0065, so the tax is about 13 rappen per gram; the maths is set out in how much is a gram of silver worth. Tax rules differ sharply from one country to the next, and the comparison table in gold taxes by country is worth reading before moving metal across a border.

Buying in Zurich and Geneva: Bars, Vreneli and Vaulting

Zurich and Geneva carry the deepest dealer networks, and unusually for Europe, several banks still run a physical gold counter alongside the independent dealers. That gives ordinary buyers two competing quote sources in the same afternoon, which is the single most effective way to compress a spread.

• Kilo bars: the lowest premium per gram, but CHF 110,830 of metal in one indivisible unit. The trade-offs are covered in the 1 kg gold bar guide.
• 100 g and 1 oz bars: CHF 11,083 and CHF 3,447 of metal respectively, with a slightly wider premium in exchange for being able to sell part of a holding.
• 20-franc Goldvreneli: the Swiss retail classic. Each coin is 6.4516 g gross at 900 fineness, so 5.807 g of fine gold. At CHF 110.83 per gram that is 5.807 x 110.83 = CHF 644 of metal, plus a modest numismatic and recognition premium.
• Vaulting: allocated storage in Swiss facilities is a widely used service, including by non-residents. It is a paid service with an annual fee, and storage does not change the tax residence or reporting duties of the owner.

A ten-second decision rule at the counter: divide the quoted price by the fine-gram weight and compare the result with CHF 110.83. On a Vreneli, a quote of CHF 700 means 700 / 5.807 = CHF 120.5 per gram, a premium of about 8.7% over metal. That is the only number that matters, and it strips away the coin, the packaging and the sales patter in one division.

The Safe-Haven Paradox: Why CHF Gold Can Rise Less

This is the point most Swiss guides miss. The franc is itself a traditional safe-haven currency, so in a crisis money moves into gold and into the franc at the same time. Gold rises in dollars, and the dollar falls against the franc, and the two effects partly cancel.

Work it through. Suppose gold gains 10% in dollars, from $4,258.60 to $4,684.46, while the franc strengthens from 0.8095 to 0.7700 per dollar. The Swiss price becomes 4,684.46 x 0.7700 = CHF 3,607 per ounce, against CHF 3,447 today. That is a gain of 4.6%, not 10%.

The gold did exactly what a hedge is supposed to do; the franc simply did some of the same job. A holder already earning and spending in francs owns part of that protection before buying a single gram, which is why gold in CHF looks calmer on a chart than gold in most other currencies. It cuts the other way too: when the franc weakens, CHF gold outruns the dollar headline.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the gold price per kilo in CHF today?

One kilogram of fine gold is CHF 110,830 today. That comes from a per-gram rate of CHF 110.83 multiplied by 1,000. The underlying inputs are a spot price of $4,258.60 per troy ounce, or $136.92 per gram, converted at 0.8095 CHF per USD. Dealers add a premium on top of that metal value, typically low single digits on a kilo bar, and it moves continuously with spot.

How much is 1 gramm gold in CHF?

Pure 24K gold is CHF 110.83 per gram. For lower purities, multiply by the fineness: 22K works out at CHF 101.60, 21K at CHF 96.98 and 18K at CHF 83.12 per gram. Jewellery quoted per gram will sit above these figures because it includes making charges and, unlike investment bars, is not treated as VAT-exempt investment gold.

How much is one ounce of gold in Swiss francs?

A troy ounce is CHF 3,447. The calculation is $4,258.60 x 0.8095, or equivalently 31.1035 g x CHF 110.83. Note that a troy ounce is 31.1035 g, not the 28.35 g of a kitchen ounce, and using the wrong one overstates a quantity of gold by roughly 10%. The conversion is set out in full on the troy ounce to grams calculator.

Is gold VAT-free in Switzerland?

Investment-grade gold bars and coins are currently exempt from Swiss VAT, provided they meet the accepted fineness and form requirements. Gold jewellery is not, because it is taxed as a manufactured product. Silver receives no exemption at all and is standard-rated, currently 8.1%. Tax rules change, so confirm the current position with the Swiss federal tax administration before a large purchase.

How much is a 20-franc Goldvreneli worth?

The 20-franc Goldvreneli weighs 6.4516 g at 900 fineness, giving 5.807 g of fine gold. At CHF 110.83 per gram that is 5.807 x 110.83 = about CHF 644 of metal. Dealers quote above this to cover their spread and the coin's collector appeal, so a realistic asking price runs some percent higher. Divide any quote by 5.807 to see the implied per-gram cost.

Is gold cheaper in Switzerland than in Germany or the UK?

The metal costs the same. Convert each country's per-gram figure back to dollars and Switzerland at CHF 110.83, Germany at EUR 118.81 and the UK at GBP 101.83 all resolve to about $136.9 per gram. Investment gold is VAT-exempt in all three, so the only real differences are dealer premiums, spreads and the ease of reselling a given brand later.

Conclusion

Switzerland does not sell cheap gold; it sells liquid gold. At CHF 110.83 per gram, CHF 3,447 per ounce and CHF 110,830 per kilo, the metal is priced off the same world spot as everywhere else, and the genuine advantages are the narrow spread, the bank and dealer competition in Zurich and Geneva, and bar brands that resell on sight anywhere in the world. Keep the VAT asymmetry in mind if you also hold silver, and remember that a strong franc can quietly mute a strong gold year. Check the live gold rates before you commit to a quote, and use the troy ounce to grams calculator whenever a dealer switches units mid-conversation.