24K vs 22K vs 18K Gold in Nepal: Purity, Price and Best Use

Roshani, a schoolteacher from Dharan, went with her mother to a jewellery shop near the Bhanuchowk area to look at bangles for her cousin's wedding. The shopkeeper laid out three sets. One was heavier and duller in colour, priced noticeably higher per gram. Another looked closer to what she'd seen on older family jewellery, warm and slightly softer in shine. A third, thin and delicately stone-set, cost less overall despite looking equally polished. When she asked why, the answer came down to a single number stamped quietly inside each piece: the karat. Nobody had explained to her, in twenty-six years of watching her mother buy and sell gold, what that number actually meant for the price she was paying or the gold she was getting.

This confusion is common, and it isn't really Roshani's fault. Nepali gold shops rarely walk a first-time buyer through the difference between 24 karat, 22 karat and 18 karat gold unless asked directly, and the daily rate boards at most shops show only one or two headline numbers. Yet the karat you choose changes three things at once: how much of what you're paying for is actual gold, how the piece will hold up over decades of wear, and how easily you'll be able to sell or exchange it later. This guide walks through all three, with the exact math FENEGOSIDA and Nepali jewellers use to move between karats, so the next time you're standing at a glass counter in New Road, Mahendrapul or Birgunj, the stamp inside the jewellery means something to you.

The Short Answer

24K gold is nearly pure (99.9%) and is bought as bars, coins or investment holdings. It is too soft for everyday jewellery. 22K gold is about 91.6% pure and is Nepal's standard for wedding sets, bangles, tilhari and almost every traditional ornament, because the alloy mix makes it durable enough to wear daily. 18K gold is 75% pure, less common in Nepal, and shows up mainly in gemstone rings, lightweight fashion pieces and designs made for export or diaspora buyers who want a lower gold cost per gram. The rest of this guide explains why, with real numbers.

What "Karat" Actually Means

Karat measures how much of a piece of jewellery is pure gold, out of 24 equal parts. Pure gold, with essentially no other metal mixed in, is 24 karat. Drop to 22 karat and 22 of those 24 parts are gold, with the remaining 2 parts made up of other metals, almost always copper and silver in Nepal's market. At 18 karat, 18 of 24 parts are gold, meaning a quarter of the piece's weight is alloy. The system is old, older than Nepal's modern banking sector, and it survives because it gives buyers and sellers a shared, checkable language for something that would otherwise be impossible to judge by eye.

Purity is also written as a decimal fineness, and this is the number you'll actually see stamped on the metal. A jeweller marks a 24K piece "999," a 22K piece "916," and an 18K piece "750." These numbers are the purity percentage rounded to three digits: 999 fineness means 99.9% pure, 916 means 91.6% pure, and 750 means exactly 75% pure. Learning to read these three stamps alone will save most buyers from the single most common source of gold-shop confusion in Nepal.

Note on terminology: Nepal's gold trade widely uses two market names, Hallmark (also written chhapawal) for 24K fine gold and Tejabi for 22K jewellery gold. FENEGOSIDA, the Federation of Nepal Gold and Silver Dealers' Association, publishes daily rates under both names. 18K and 14K do not have an official daily published rate; jewellers and buyers estimate them from the 24K figure using the formula covered further down this page.

24K Gold in Nepal: The Investment Grade

Twenty-four karat gold, sold in Nepal as Hallmark or fine gold, is as close to pure as the retail market gets. FENEGOSIDA certifies it around 99.5% to 99.9% purity, and it is the reference figure that the entire daily rate sheet is built around. Because there is almost no alloy diluting it, its price per gram runs higher than any other karat on any given day, and its colour reads as a deeper, richer yellow than jewellery-grade gold.

This is the karat most Nepalis actually mean when they talk about gold as an investment rather than an ornament. Coins, small bars, and larger bullion holdings bought through registered dealers are almost always 24K, sold with minimal design premium since there is no intricate shaping involved. Some temple offerings and religious donations are also made in this grade, since ritual gifting traditionally favours the purest available form.

The tradeoff is durability. Pure gold is remarkably soft, soft enough that a coin can pick up scratches from being handled with keys in the same pocket, and a ring made from 24K would lose its shape within a few years of daily wear. This is precisely why almost no everyday Nepali jewellery is made in 24K, even though it carries the highest bullion value per gram. If you're buying gold to hold rather than to wear, 24K gives you the largest share of actual metal for your money, since there are no making charges tied to intricate craftsmanship and nothing to lose in resale beyond the standard exchange margin.

22K Gold in Nepal: Why It Is the Jewellery Standard

Ask any goldsmith in Kathmandu, Biratnagar or Pokhara what "normal" gold means and the answer, almost without exception, is 22 karat. Nepal's entire jewellery culture, from a simple pair of earrings to an elaborate bridal set, runs on this purity, and understanding why explains most of what shapes the market you're buying into.

Pure 24K gold cannot hold detailed work. Alloying it down to 22K, adding roughly 8.4% copper and silver, produces a metal that is noticeably harder, more resistant to scratching, and better able to hold fine engraving, filigree and stone settings while still carrying over 91% real gold content. That balance, high purity with workable durability, is why 22K became the shared standard not just in Nepal but across the entire Indian subcontinent centuries ago, and why the cultural expectation of what "real gold" should look and feel like is built around it.

Traditional Nepali ornaments lean almost entirely on this karat. The tilhari, the cylindrical pendant that marks a married Hindu woman from many hill communities, is typically 22K. The naugedi, a nine-bead necklace representing the nine planets, is 22K. Wedding bangles, kangan, and the bulk of what a Nepali bride receives as streedhan on her wedding day are cut from this same purity. Resale culture follows the same logic: because so much of the market's jewellery is 22K, shops are set up to test, weigh and quote against the 916 standard by default, which means selling or exchanging 22K jewellery later tends to be the most straightforward transaction you can make at a Nepali gold counter.

On any given day, 22K trades at roughly 91 to 92% of the 24K rate, tracking it closely since both move with the same underlying FENEGOSIDA fixing. It is this figure, the officially quoted 22K or Tejabi rate, that most Nepalis are actually checking when they ask "what's the gold price today," since it's the number tied to what most families are buying and selling.

18K Gold in Nepal: The Uncommon But Growing Option

Eighteen karat gold has never been part of Nepal's traditional jewellery vocabulary the way 22K has, but it isn't rare by accident either. At 75% purity, it sits at a very different point on the durability-versus-value tradeoff. A quarter of an 18K piece's weight is alloy, which makes it noticeably harder than even 22K, lighter in gold cost per gram, and more forgiving for designs that need fine, delicate metalwork, like prong settings for diamonds or intricate Western-style rings.

You'll mostly find 18K in two corners of Nepal's market. The first is gemstone jewellery, particularly diamond and precious-stone rings, where the stone rather than the gold is the centrepiece and the setting needs to be strong enough to grip the stone securely without adding excessive weight or cost. The second is fashion-forward or export-oriented pieces, designs aimed at younger buyers who want a lighter, more affordable everyday piece, or jewellery made with Gulf and international buyers in mind, since 18K is the default standard in much of the Middle East, Europe and North America.

The tradeoff shows up mainly at resale. Nepal's exchange and buy-back culture is calibrated around 22K, and while 18K pieces are genuinely valuable, some shops will quote them at a wider discount or take more convincing to weigh and test correctly compared with a standard Tejabi bangle. If you're buying 18K, it's worth asking the shop directly how they handle resale or exchange for that purity before you commit, particularly for a larger purchase.

How Nepal's Karat Standard Compares With Neighbouring Markets

Nepal's 22K default lines up closely with India, where 22K (also called 916 gold) has dominated the jewellery trade for the same durability reasons, and where BIS hallmarking has become mandatory for retail sale in most product categories in recent years. Buyers who cross the border for wedding shopping, a fairly common practice for families in the Terai near Birgunj, Biratnagar or Nepalgunj, are generally comparing like with like when they check 22K rates on both sides, though import duty, VAT treatment and exchange-rate movement mean the final shop price rarely matches exactly.

Gulf countries, where a large share of Nepal's working-age diaspora is based, run on a different default. The UAE, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and neighbouring markets sell heavily in 21K and 22K for traditional pieces but also carry far more 18K stock than Nepal typically does, reflecting demand from a more design-led, international jewellery culture. This is part of why 18K pieces bought or gifted abroad sometimes puzzle Nepali buyers unfamiliar with the standard, and why NRN families bringing jewellery home should expect Nepali shops to test and quote it on its actual purity rather than assume it will be treated as equivalent to local 22K.

China and most Western markets lean even further toward 18K and 14K for everyday fashion jewellery, treating 24K largely as an investment and gifting grade rather than a wearable one, similar to how Nepal treats Hallmark gold. Understanding where Nepal sits on this spectrum is useful mainly for one practical reason: if you're comparing a price you saw advertised abroad, in India, the Gulf, or anywhere else, confirm the karat before comparing the rupee figure, since a lower per-gram price quoted elsewhere is often explained entirely by a lower karat rather than a genuinely better deal.

Today's Live Gold Rate Formula: Converting Between Karats

FENEGOSIDA fixes and publishes an official daily rate for 24K (Hallmark) gold every business morning, and on most days a separate Tejabi (22K) rate as well. It does not publish 18K or 14K rates, because those purities are not part of the standard daily bullion fixing. Even the 22K figure occasionally goes unpublished on a given day, showing as unavailable on rate boards until the next update. In both situations, the fix is the same simple calculation.

Multiply the day's official 24K rate by the decimal purity of the karat you want, 0.916 for 22K, 0.75 for 18K, 0.583 for 14K, and you get that karat's estimated bullion value at today's price. This works because every lower karat is, by definition, a fixed fraction of pure gold diluted with alloy, so its value scales down in direct proportion to how much actual gold it contains.

Here is a worked example using an actual recent snapshot from Merokalam's live tracker, where the 24K (Hallmark) rate stood at NPR 285,600 per tola, or roughly NPR 24,486 per gram, in late July 2026.

These figures are metal value only, calculated for illustration from one sample date. Gold rates move daily, sometimes by several thousand rupees per tola. Always pull the day's actual 24K and 22K figures before doing this calculation for a real purchase.

Two caveats matter here. First, this formula gives you bullion value, the raw cost of the metal itself, not the final shop price. A jeweller will still add making charges (jyala) for the labour of shaping the piece, a wastage charge (jadau) to cover material lost during crafting, and 13% VAT on the making charges. Second, the officially published Tejabi rate on any given day can differ slightly from a pure 0.916 calculation, because it reflects actual market trading and dealer sentiment rather than a fixed mathematical ratio to the Hallmark rate. Treat the formula as a reliable estimate for 18K and 14K, where no official rate exists, and as a close cross-check for 22K on days when the Tejabi figure isn't separately published yet.

24K vs 22K vs 18K Price Comparison

The table below shows how the same sample 24K rate (NPR 285,600 per tola) translates across units and karats, so you can see the relationship at a glance before plugging in today's actual number.

Sample figures based on a late-July 2026 Merokalam tracker snapshot. These numbers are for illustration and will not match today's actual price. Confirm the current rate before any purchase.

How 24K and 22K Prices Have Moved Together Over the Years

Because 22K is a fixed fraction of 24K, the two have risen in near lockstep over the past decade, even as the absolute numbers became almost unrecognisable from where they started. Using Shrawan 1 (the Nepali fiscal new year) benchmark checkpoints tracked from FENEGOSIDA's own day-rate records, the 24K figure moved from NPR 53,500 per tola in 2074 BS to NPR 192,300 per tola by 2082 BS, a rise of roughly 259% in nine years. The 22K figure, derived at 0.916 of each year's 24K checkpoint, tracked the same climb.

24K figures are FENEGOSIDA Shrawan 1 benchmarks as tracked in Merokalam's 10-year gold price history. 22K figures in this table are calculated using the 0.916 formula for comparison, not separately published historical Tejabi records.

The lesson buyers usually take from this table isn't just that gold got more expensive. It's that a jump in one karat's price is never isolated. When 24K spiked 43.7% between 2076 and 2077 on the back of pandemic-era safe-haven demand and a weakening rupee, 22K jewellery got proportionally more expensive at the same time, and so did the making charges layered on top of it, since most shops quote jyala as a percentage of the gold value rather than a flat fee. A buyer comparing karats purely on today's sticker price is missing how tightly they move together over time.

How to Verify Gold Purity Before You Buy

The stamp is your first and most reliable check. A properly certified piece carries its fineness number, 999, 916 or 750, along with the assayer or dealer's mark, stamped directly into the metal itself, usually on the clasp, inner band or an inconspicuous edge. Ask to see it under the shop's light, not just on the printed bill. A missing stamp isn't automatically fraud, some older or custom-made pieces genuinely lack one, but it is a fair reason to ask the shop directly why it's absent before you pay.

Nepal's hallmarking system has historically leaned on voluntary compliance and FENEGOSIDA guidelines rather than a single mandatory nationwide certification body, unlike India's Bureau of Indian Standards system. The Nepal Bureau of Standards and Metrology (NBSM) is involved in setting purity benchmarks, but enforcement at the level of individual shops has depended heavily on inspector capacity and buyer awareness. Under-karating, selling 18K or 20K gold labelled as 22K, has been a documented problem in the past, which is exactly why learning to read the stamp yourself, rather than relying entirely on what a shop tells you verbally, is worth the two minutes it takes.

Beyond the stamp, ask for an itemised bill that separately lists the bullion value, making charges, wastage percentage and VAT. A legitimate FENEGOSIDA-registered dealer will provide this without hesitation. If a shop is reluctant to break down the bill this way, or claims it "doesn't usually give itemised bills for smaller purchases," treat that as a signal to ask more questions or consider another shop. Weighing the piece yourself on a certified scale, or asking the shop to do so in front of you, is also a reasonable and normal request, not an insult to the dealer.

Two testing methods sit behind the stamp. The traditional method, and the one that gave Tejabi gold its name, is the acid test: a small scrape of the metal is rubbed on a touchstone and exposed to nitric acid, with the resulting colour reaction indicating purity within a rough range. It's fast and cheap but depends heavily on the tester's experience. Larger, more established shops in Kathmandu and other bigger cities increasingly use XRF (X-ray fluorescence) machines, which read purity electronically without damaging the piece and give a far more precise percentage. If you're making a significant purchase, asking whether the shop can XRF-test the piece in front of you is a reasonable request and increasingly common practice.

Which Karat Should You Buy? A Decision Guide

The right karat depends less on which one is "better" in the abstract and more on what you're actually trying to do with the gold.

Wedding jewellery, dowry sets and daily-wear ornaments: 22K (Tejabi) is the practical default. It withstands decades of handling, holds intricate traditional designs like filigree and stone-setting reasonably well, and matches how the entire local resale and exchange market is calibrated. Almost every bridal set sold in Nepal is built on this purity for good reason.

Pure investment, savings, or a store of value: 24K (Hallmark) coins or small bars are the more efficient choice. There's no design premium to pay for, no wastage charge on shaped detailing, and the entire value of what you buy is close to the value of what you could sell back, aside from the standard dealer margin.

Gemstone rings, fashion pieces, or export-style jewellery: 18K is worth considering, particularly for diamond or precious-stone settings, where a harder alloy holds the stone more securely, and for lighter, more affordable everyday pieces where you're comfortable trading some resale simplicity for lower upfront cost and a different design aesthetic.

NRN and diaspora gifting or travel: weight and customs limits matter here as much as karat. A lighter 18K piece can mean a lower declared value and easier customs handling when carrying jewellery internationally, though personal-use jewellery allowances and rules vary by destination and should always be checked before travel, particularly if transiting through India, where duty-free gold carry-in limits are comparatively strict.

Gold Loans: How Karat Affects What a Bank Will Lend You

Most Nepali commercial banks and finance companies offer gold-backed loans, where jewellery is pledged as collateral and the loan amount is calculated as a percentage of the assessed gold value, commonly in the range of 80 to 90% of the tested purity's market value, though this varies by lender and current regulatory limits. Because the loan is sized against actual gold content, a 22K bangle secures meaningfully more borrowing power gram for gram than an 18K piece of the same weight, and a bank's in-house assayer will retest the piece on intake regardless of what karat the original shop bill states. If you're weighing whether gold you already own could function as emergency collateral later, this is one more reason 22K tends to be treated as the more liquid, more bankable form of jewellery gold in Nepal, alongside its stronger resale market.

Making Charges, Wastage and How Karat Affects Long-Term Value

The karat you choose interacts with making charges (jyala) and wastage (jadau) in ways that are easy to overlook at the counter. Intricate 22K traditional designs, filigree work, elaborate bridal sets, heavy Newari patterns, tend to carry higher making charges per gram because they demand more skilled labour hours. Simpler 18K pieces, especially machine-finished fashion jewellery, often carry lower making charges relative to their total price, since the design work is frequently less elaborate and more standardised.

Resale tells a different story. When you sell gold back or exchange it for a new piece, a shop pays you close to the bullion value of the metal, factoring in its tested purity, minus a standard deduction to cover re-refining costs. Making charges you paid originally are almost never recovered at resale, regardless of karat. This is why buyers focused purely on long-term value, rather than wearability or design, are usually better served by 24K bars or coins with minimal making-charge exposure in the first place, while 22K and 18K jewellery should be evaluated as a combination of ornament and partial investment, not treated as a pure investment vehicle.

A worked example makes the gap concrete. Take a 10-gram piece at the sample rate used earlier in this guide, with a mid-range making charge of 12% and standard 13% VAT applied only to the making charge, ignoring wastage for simplicity.

Illustrative only. Real making-charge percentages, wastage and VAT treatment vary by shop and design complexity. Ask for the exact rate card before comparing prices between shops.

Notice that the 18K ring, despite carrying less pure gold, isn't automatically the cheapest option once the same making-charge percentage is applied, and a 24K coin with no design premium can land closer to a heavily worked 22K piece than its lower bullion value alone would suggest. This is the calculation that actually matters when comparing two pieces at a shop counter, not just the karat number stamped inside them.

Common Myths About Gold Karats in Nepal

A few misunderstandings come up often enough to address directly. Some buyers assume 24K jewellery is common in Nepal; it isn't, because pure gold is too soft to hold shape as everyday ornaments, and almost no traditional Nepali jewellery is made from it. Others assume "Hallmark" and "Tejabi" describe quality tiers of the same purity rather than two genuinely different karats; they don't, Hallmark is 24K and Tejabi is 22K, and FENEGOSIDA quotes them as separate daily rates precisely because they represent different gold content. There's also a tendency to see 18K as "less real" or somehow inferior gold; it's a fully legitimate, internationally standard purity, just one that Nepal's traditional jewellery culture has historically used less than its neighbours have. Finally, some buyers assume the 22K rate is always exactly 91.6% of the 24K rate down to the rupee; in practice it tracks closely but is independently fixed by market trading, so small day-to-day deviations from a pure mathematical ratio are normal.

Frequently Asked Questions: 24K vs 22K vs 18K Gold in Nepal

Final Note

Karat isn't a marks-of-quality ladder where higher is simply better. It's a tradeoff between purity, durability and purpose, and Nepal's market has settled on 22K as the everyday standard precisely because it balances those three well for jewellery that has to survive a lifetime of weddings, festivals and inheritance. Whether you end up buying 24K coins for savings, a 22K bridal set for a wedding, or an 18K ring for a diamond your partner picked out, the same habit protects you either way: check today's official rate before you go, read the stamp on the piece itself, and ask for a bill that itemises exactly what you're paying for.

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