Gold Purity Check: What's the difference between 24k, 22k and 18k gold?

India’s love for gold is growing bigger as is evident in the recent import data released for March 2021 which indicates that gold imports have begun to surge. At $8.4 billion, March has seen the highest monthly tally since 2012-13, the year when gold imports touched a decadal high.

While people flock to the jewellery shops to buy in gems and jewellery, coins and bars, it is also important to understand the type and the purity of gold you want to buy.

What is Karat ?
We usually come across terms like Karat, or the ‘K’ suffix when we go to buy gold. Karat is the term used to measure the gold content or purity. Karat is basically a unit used to measure the purity of gold. The higher the karatage, the purer the gold. Let’s now dig in to find out the difference between 24K, 22K and 18K gold.

24K gold
24K gold is the purest form of the yellow metal. This means that all 24 parts are all pure gold without traces of any other metals.

24K is known to be 99.9% pure and takes on a distinct bright yellow color. There is no higher form of gold than 24K.  Since it is the purest form of gold, it is more expensive than 22K or 18K gold.

However, this type of gold is lesser in density as compared to gold of a lower karatage which makes it soft and is therefore not suited for regular forms of jewellery.

Coins and bars are mostly bought of 24K gold purity. 24K gold is also used in certain electronics and medical devices.

22K gold
22K gold jewellery implies that 22 parts of the jewellery is of gold and the balance 2 parts are some other metals. This kind of gold is commonly used in jewellery making.

In 22K gold, only 91.67% is pure gold. The other 8.33% comprises metals like silver, zinc, nickel and other alloys.

This addition of metals makes the texture of gold harder and thereby it becomes more durable. Although this can be used to make plain gold jewellery, 22K gold isn’t preferable for diamonds and heavily studded jewellery.

18K gold
18K gold is 75% gold mixed with 25% of other metals like copper or silver etc.

This type of gold is used to make stone studded jewellery and other diamond jewellery.

18K gold is less expensive in comparison to 24K and 22K and is slightly dull in colour.

Recognizing 18K jewellery is rather simple – jewellery is usually stamped with 18K, 18Kt, 18k. At times, 18K gold is marked by 750, 0.75 or a stamp similar to these in order to symbolise that the jewellery contains 75%gold.

Buyer’s Guide

24 karat = 100% gold
22 karat = 91.7 % gold
18 karat = 75.0 % gold
14 karat = 58.3 % gold
12 karat = 50.0 % gold
10 karat = 41.7 % gold