Macro ratio · live
Gold to Oil Ratio
The gold to oil ratio is 54.12 — gold at $4,637.72 per troy ounce divided by WTI crude at $85.69 per barrel. One ounce of gold currently buys about 54.12 barrels of oil.
This is the cleanest available read on monetary value against real-economy input cost, which is why it turns up in macro commentary far more often than either price alone.
Prices as of Aug 24, 2026, 9:27 AM UTC. Change either side of the calculator to price any other pair, or read the unit reference for how cross-unit ratios should be read.
Gold to Crude Oil WTI Futures ratio
1.000 T.oz of gold = 54.122 Bbl of crude oil wti futures
Inverse (WTIOIL-FUT/XAU): 0.01848 — one Barrel of crude oil wti futures buys that much gold.
Close to the middle of its 1 year range. (38th percentile of the last 1 year)
Gold
$4,637.72
per Troy Ounce
Crude Oil WTI Futures
$85.69
per Barrel
Unit basis: USD per Troy Ounce ÷ USD per Barrel. The ratio reads as Barrels of crude oil wti futures per Troy Ounce of gold. Prices as of Mon, 24 Aug 2026 09:27:40 GMT.
1Y average
61.78
median 60.52
1Y low
39.84
Apr 5, 2026
1Y high
88.63
Jan 27, 2026
Normal band
49.36–74.21
mean ± 1 std dev
Deviation from mean
-0.62σ
279 observations
Gold to Crude Oil WTI Futures ratio charts
Pick a range once — it applies to the XAU/WTIOIL-FUT ratio line, the OHLC candles and the Gold / Crude Oil WTI Futures price chart below.
XAU/WTIOIL-FUT ratio line
How many Bbl of Crude Oil WTI Futures one T.oz of Gold buys, over 1Y.
XAU/WTIOIL-FUT ratio candles
Open, high, low and close of the XAU/WTIOIL-FUT ratio for each period in the last 1Y.
Gold and Crude Oil WTI Futures prices
Both legs of the ratio on their own axes, so you can see which one moved over 1Y.
How to calculate the gold to oil ratio
Gold to oil ratio = gold price per troy oz ÷ WTI crude price per barrel
Gold is quoted per troy ounce and crude per barrel, so the result is a rate, not a count: barrels of oil per troy ounce of gold. It reads as purchasing power, not as a quantity of anything.
Worked example, live prices: $4,637.72 ÷ $85.69 = 54.12. The inverse is 0.01848.
What the ratio actually measures
Gold is a monetary asset with almost no industrial consumption. Oil is an input to nearly everything else — freight, plastics, fertiliser, power. Dividing one by the other strips out the dollar and leaves a comparison between store-of-value demand and real economic throughput. A rising ratio means monetary anxiety is outpacing industrial demand; a falling one means the opposite.
The historical centre of gravity is roughly 15 to 20 barrels per ounce, and it has held that band across very different monetary regimes. That stability is what makes extreme readings informative rather than noise.
The extremes are supply shocks, not trends
In April 2020 the ratio spiked near 90 as WTI collapsed toward — and briefly through — zero on storage constraints. In 1973 and 1979 it went the other way as OPEC embargoes repriced oil. Both directions were oil events, not gold events. That is the usual case: gold is the slower-moving leg, so most sharp moves in this ratio are telling you something about crude.
Over the trailing 1 year the ratio has averaged 61.78, with a low of 39.84 and a high of 88.63. Today's 54.12 is at the 38th percentile of that window. Read the extremes against oil's own supply picture before treating them as a monetary signal.
Other commodity ratios
Each of these has its own page with live pricing, a full year of history and the range statistics.
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- Gold to natural gas ratioMonetary vs energy · live ratio
Live prices behind the ratios
| # | Symbol | Name | Rate (USD) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | XAU | Gold | 4641.78 |
| 2 | XAG | Silver | 68.86 |
| 3 | WTIOIL-FUT | Crude Oil WTI Futures | 85.69 |
| 4 | BRENTOIL-FUT | Crude Oil Brent Futures | 92.72 |
| 5 | NG-FUT | Natural Gas Futures | 2.75 |
| 6 | PL | Platinum | 1884.84 |
| 7 | PA | Palladium | 1346.10 |
Frequently asked questions
What is the gold to oil ratio today?
The gold to oil ratio is 54.12, meaning one troy ounce of gold buys about 54.12 barrels of WTI crude. That is $4,637.72 per ounce of gold divided by $85.69 per barrel of oil, from live mid-market prices.
What is a normal gold to oil ratio?
Historically the ratio has centred on roughly 15 to 20 barrels per ounce. Readings far above that usually reflect an oil-price collapse rather than a gold rally — the April 2020 spike near 90 came from WTI falling to storage-constrained lows.
Which oil price does this use?
WTI crude futures, quoted in US dollars per barrel. Brent typically trades at a modest premium to WTI, so a Brent-based ratio runs slightly lower. You can switch either leg in the calculator above.
Why do analysts watch gold against oil?
Because it isolates a relationship the dollar otherwise obscures. Both legs are dollar-denominated, so a general inflation or dollar move affects both and cancels out. What remains is monetary demand measured against industrial input cost — a cleaner recession and stagflation signal than either chart alone.