The gold-to-silver ratio tells you how many ounces of silver it takes to buy one ounce of gold. You get it by dividing the gold spot price by the silver spot price. On 2026-10-14, gold was about $4,096.00 and silver about $55.75 (gold-api.com), a ratio of roughly 73.5. The live figure below updates in your browser every minute.
Live gold-to-silver ratio
Last stored: gold $4,096.00, silver $55.75 (gold-api.com, 2026-10-14). Live prices load in your browser.
How to read the ratio
A ratio of 70 means one ounce of gold is worth about 70 ounces of silver. When the number rises, silver is getting cheaper relative to gold. When it falls, silver is gaining on gold. The ratio says nothing about whether either metal is cheap or expensive in dollars, only how they compare with each other. Both prices can fall while the ratio stays the same.
People use the ratio for context: to compare today with history, to understand why silver often moves more sharply than gold, and to track whether the gap between the two metals is widening or narrowing. VaultPulse shows the number and its history. We don't say what it will do next, and nothing here is a trading signal.
Gold-to-silver ratio: AD 1 to today
Timeline: Roman Empire about 12:1 (AD 1), US 15:1 (1792), US 16:1 (1834), then annual market averages from 1687 to 2025 (MeasuringWorth). Loading chart…
Data: ratio_history.json. Historical context only.
A short history
For most of recorded history, governments, not markets, set the ratio. Around the time of Augustus, the Roman state valued the gold aureus at 25 silver denarii, which works out to roughly 12 ounces of silver per ounce of gold. Centuries later, the US Coinage Act of 1792 fixed the dollar at 15:1, France set 15.5:1 in 1803, and the US moved to 16:1 in 1834.
That changed in the 1870s. The US Coinage Act of 1873 ended the free coinage of silver dollars and several European countries moved to gold. With silver no longer tied to gold by law, the market ratio drifted higher over the following decades. From the 20th century on, the ratio has been set by trading, and it has swung widely, spending long stretches between roughly 30 and 100. The timeline above marks the official ratios as approximate and uses annual market averages (MeasuringWorth) from 1687 to 2025, which smooth out short spikes.
Medieval Europe is left out on purpose. We haven't found one reliable, sourced figure for it, and we'd rather show a gap than guess.
Why the ratio moves
Gold is mostly held as a store of value by central banks, investors and jewellery buyers. Silver has those buyers too, but more than half of its demand comes from industry, such as electronics and solar panels. So the two metals react differently to the economy, interest rates and investor mood. Silver's market is also much smaller, so its price tends to swing more in percentage terms. Those differences are why the ratio isn't fixed.
Related: COMEX silver inventory · Paper to metal (M1/M2) · Gold & silver news
Sources
FAQ
What is the gold-to-silver ratio?
It is the gold spot price divided by the silver spot price: how many ounces of silver equal one ounce of gold in value.
What was the ratio in Roman times?
Around AD 1 the Roman state valued the gold aureus at 25 silver denarii, roughly 12 to 1. That was an official rate, not a market price.
Does a high ratio mean silver will rise?
No. The ratio describes the present relationship between the two prices. It does not predict future prices, and it has stayed high or low for years at a time.