Search “gold price Singapore” and you’ll get a number in seconds. Try to buy a gram, and you’ll be quoted something higher.

That gap confuses a lot of first-time buyers. It shouldn’t. Here’s what sits in between.

The reference price is the metal, not the product

The number you see online is the market value of the underlying gold. What you’re buying is a physical bar — refined, fabricated, assayed, packaged, transported, insured and stored.

All of that costs money. The difference between the two figures is the premium.

If gold is valued at S$110 a gram and a 1g bar sells for S$118, the premium is S$8.

A premium isn’t a red flag. Every physical gold product carries one. The real question is whether you can see the final number clearly before you commit.

Why 1g costs more per gram than 100g

A 1g bar contains one-hundredth of the gold in a 100g bar. But fabricating, assaying and packaging it doesn’t cost one-hundredth as much.

So smaller denominations carry higher premiums per gram. That isn’t a pricing trick — it’s manufacturing.

Buying and selling are two different prices

The price a provider sells at isn’t the price it buys back at. That gap is the spread.

Say a provider sells at S$118 and buys at S$114. You’d pay S$1,180 for 10g. Sell it back the same day, with the gold price unchanged, and you’d receive S$1,140.

The S$40 didn’t come from gold falling. It came from the spread.

Which is why the entry premium only tells you half the story. Check the exit price too.

The number that actually matters

The purchase price is one component. Depending on how you buy, there may also be storage charges, transaction fees, redemption costs or delivery charges.

Cost to buy + cost to own + cost to exit.

A low entry premium with expensive storage costs more over five years. A cheap purchase paired with a wide sell spread hurts if you exit early. And if you eventually want the physical bar in your hand, check what redemption costs and what the minimum quantity is.

Different providers put their costs in different places. Add them up across the whole journey, not just the first step.

A note on GST

Singapore doesn’t exempt all gold from GST.

IRAS exempts qualifying Investment Precious Metals (IPM). Gold bars must meet a minimum purity of 99.5%, alongside other criteria covering form and bullion-market acceptance. Jewellery and non-qualifying products remain taxable.

Two items can both be high-purity gold and be treated completely differently.

How FinMet prices it

One all-in price per gram, refreshed every 30 seconds, shown before you confirm. Nothing is added at checkout — no commission, no transaction charge, nothing between the quote and the total.

Storage is free for three years from each purchase, and you can redeem physical bars in whole 10-gram multiples.

The point

The market price tells you what gold is doing. It doesn’t tell you what a purchase will cost you.

A low headline number tells you very little on its own. A price you can understand, compare and actually transact at tells you a great deal more.

Frequently asked questions

Why isn’t the online gold price the same as what I pay? The online price is a market reference for the underlying metal. A physical bar also carries the cost of refining, fabrication, handling, transport, storage and the seller’s margin.

What is a gold premium? The difference between the underlying value of the gold and the retail price of a specific product. Premiums vary by size, provider and what’s included.

Why does 1g cost more per gram than 100g? Production costs don’t scale down with size. A 1g bar holds far less gold, but fabricating, assaying and packaging it still costs real money — so the premium per gram is higher.

What is the buy-sell spread? The gap between the price a provider sells gold at and the price it buys gold back at. It means an immediate resale can return less than you paid, even if the gold price hasn’t moved.

How should I compare gold prices in Singapore? Compare the full cost of ownership, not the headline price: what it costs to buy, to own, and to sell or redeem — including storage, spreads, transaction charges and delivery.