{"id":20270,"date":"2026-10-05T05:44:16","date_gmt":"2026-10-05T04:44:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/metalsradar.com\/glossary\/karat\/"},"modified":"2026-10-05T07:46:53","modified_gmt":"2026-10-05T06:46:53","slug":"karat","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/metalsradar.com\/ae\/glossary\/karat\/","title":{"rendered":"Karat"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mrf-gl\"><p class=\"gl-def\">A karat (also spelled carat) measures gold purity in 24ths. 24K is pure gold, 22K is 22 parts gold out of 24, and 18K is 18 parts, or 75%.<\/p><aside class=\"panel gl-live\"><p class=\"gl-live-h\">\ud83c\udde6\ud83c\uddea Today in the UAE<\/p><div class=\"gl-row\"><span>Gold, 1 troy ounce (spot)<\/span><b>15,279 AED<\/b><\/div><div class=\"gl-row\"><span>Cheapest 1 oz gold coin: <a href=\"https:\/\/metalsradar.com\/ae\/product\/1-oz-krugerrand-gold-coin\/\">1 oz Krugerrand Gold Coin<\/a><\/span><b>16,115.59 AED<\/b> <small>+5.5% premium<\/small><\/div><p class=\"gl-src\">Data as of 05.10.2026, updated daily.<\/p><a class=\"btn primary\" href=\"https:\/\/metalsradar.com\/ae\/cheapest-gold-coins\/\">Compare gold coin prices \u203a<\/a><\/aside><div class=\"gl-body\"><h2>From karats to fineness<\/h2>\n<p>Divide the karat number by 24 and you get the share of pure gold. Jewellers in Dubai display rates for four grades every day, and the gap between them is simply the gold content.<\/p>\n<table>\n<thead><tr><th>Karat<\/th><th>Pure gold<\/th><th>Fineness<\/th><th>Typical use in the UAE<\/th><\/tr><\/thead>\n<tbody>\n<tr><td>24K<\/td><td>99.9% and above<\/td><td>999 \/ 999.9<\/td><td>Bars, TT bars, bullion coins and small gift bars<\/td><\/tr>\n<tr><td>22K<\/td><td>91.6%<\/td><td>916<\/td><td>Traditional South Asian jewellery, Krugerrand<\/td><\/tr>\n<tr><td>21K<\/td><td>87.5%<\/td><td>875<\/td><td>Arabic and Emirati style jewellery<\/td><\/tr>\n<tr><td>18K<\/td><td>75%<\/td><td>750<\/td><td>Diamond and designer jewellery<\/td><\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p>For a more precise scale, see <a href=\"fineness}}\">fineness in parts per thousand<\/a>.<\/p>\n<h2>Jewellery or bullion: what you actually pay for<\/h2>\n<p>A 22K bangle and a 24K bar can both be bought in the Gold Souk on the same afternoon, but they are different purchases. The jewellery price is built from three parts:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><strong>Gold value:<\/strong> weight \u00d7 the day's rate for that karat.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Making charges:<\/strong> the jeweller's fee for design and labour, per gram or per piece.<\/li>\n<li><strong>VAT:<\/strong> 5% on the invoice, because jewellery is not investment metal.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>A 24K bar of 99.9% or more skips most of that. There is no design premium, and investment metal of 99% purity is zero-rated (see <a href=\"investment-gold-tax}}\">VAT on gold in the UAE<\/a>). The cost above metal value is the dealer's <a href=\"premium}}\">premium over spot<\/a>.<\/p>\n<h3>Example: same weight, different gold<\/h3>\n<p>Take three 20 g items:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>24K bar (999.9):<\/strong> 19.998 g of pure gold.<\/li>\n<li><strong>22K chain (916):<\/strong> 18.32 g of pure gold.<\/li>\n<li><strong>18K ring (750):<\/strong> 15 g of pure gold.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>When you sell, a buyer pays for pure gold, so the 18K ring returns roughly three quarters of the bar's metal value, and the making charges you paid are not refunded.<\/p>\n<h2>Which karat should you choose?<\/h2>\n<p>Choose 22K or 21K if you want to wear the gold and accept that design costs are part of the price. Choose 24K bars or coins if the goal is saving in gold at the lowest cost per gram. Our <a href=\"\/ae\/categories\/gold-bars\/\">gold bar price comparison in AED<\/a> and the <a href=\"\/ae\/charts\/gold-price\/gold-price-per-gram\/\">24K gold rate per gram<\/a> show where the metal itself is cheapest.<\/p><\/div><h2>Related terms<\/h2><p class=\"gl-chips\"><a class=\"gl-chip\" href=\"https:\/\/metalsradar.com\/ae\/glossary\/fineness\/\">Fineness<\/a> <a class=\"gl-chip\" href=\"https:\/\/metalsradar.com\/ae\/glossary\/vat-on-gold\/\">VAT on Gold in the UAE<\/a> <a class=\"gl-chip\" href=\"https:\/\/metalsradar.com\/ae\/glossary\/premium-over-spot\/\">Premium over Spot<\/a><\/p><section class=\"mrf-faq\"><h2>FAQ<\/h2><div class=\"faq-list\"><details open><summary><h3>Is 24K or 22K gold better for investment?<\/h3><\/summary><div class=\"a\"><p>24K is better for investment because you pay for almost pure gold, avoid making charges and, at 99% purity or more, pay no VAT in the UAE.<\/p><\/div><\/details><details><summary><h3>How much gold is in 21K jewellery?<\/h3><\/summary><div class=\"a\"><p>21K jewellery is 87.5% pure gold, so a 10 g piece contains 8.75 g of gold.<\/p><\/div><\/details><details><summary><h3>Is karat the same as carat?<\/h3><\/summary><div class=\"a\"><p>For gold, yes: karat and carat are two spellings of the same purity scale, but the carat used for diamonds is a separate unit of weight.<\/p><\/div><\/details><\/div><\/section><details class=\"gl-src-list\"><summary>Sources<\/summary><ul><li><a href=\"https:\/\/tax.gov.ae\/Datafolder\/Files\/Legislation\/Executive%20Regulation%20of%20Federal%20Decree%20Law%20No%208%20of%202017%20-%20Publish%2017112022.pdf\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Federal Tax Authority: Executive Regulation of Federal Decree-Law No. 8 of 2017 on VAT (Cabinet Decision No. 52 of 2017)<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/details><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"parent":20238,"menu_order":4,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","_glsr_average":0,"_glsr_ranking":0,"_glsr_reviews":0,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-20270","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"taxonomy_info":[],"featured_image_src_large":false,"author_info":{"display_name":"","author_link":"https:\/\/metalsradar.com\/ae\/"},"comment_info":0,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/metalsradar.com\/ae\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/20270","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/metalsradar.com\/ae\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/metalsradar.com\/ae\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/metalsradar.com\/ae\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20270"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/metalsradar.com\/ae\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/20270\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20358,"href":"https:\/\/metalsradar.com\/ae\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/20270\/revisions\/20358"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/metalsradar.com\/ae\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/20238"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/metalsradar.com\/ae\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20270"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}