In this guide
- The short answer
- What the metal itself costs
- Why 18K usually carries the heavier labour
- The arithmetic, worked both ways
- Why 22K rules plain gold and 18K rules diamonds
- When there are stones, the gold is not the story
- What the lighter carat means at resale
- What to ask when the carats differ
- Questions we are asked
Two pieces sit on the tray. One is 22K, the other 18K. The 18K piece is made of cheaper metal — that much is not in dispute — and yet the making charge printed on its tag is the larger of the two. Buyers reasonably ask how that can be right.
It is right, and the reason is arithmetic rather than sharp practice. Whether it happens on any given pair of pieces turns on something almost nobody thinks to ask: whether the shop charges a percentage of the gold value or a flat rate per gram. The two methods rank the carats in opposite directions. For the mechanics of making charges in general, start with the main guide; this page is about what changes when the carat changes.
The short answer
18K is cheaper as metal and usually dearer as labour, and which effect wins is decided by the charging method — not by the carat.
18K is priced lower because a gram of it holds about 82% of the gold a gram of 22K holds. But 18K is also the alloy jewellers reach for when a piece has diamonds or fine openwork in it. Put the two together and the outcome is genuinely not fixed:
- On a flat rate per gram, the carat makes no difference at all. The charge attaches to weight, and a gram is a gram.
- On a percentage of gold value, the same percentage yields about 18% less making charge on 18K — not through generosity, but because the number it is applied to is smaller.
- If the 18K piece carries a higher percentage, as stone-set work usually does, the lighter carat can cost more to make in rupees. Cheaper metal is not automatically cheaper jewellery.
What the metal itself costs
22K is 916 — 91.6% gold. 18K is 750 — 75.0% gold. Both sit among the six purities the Bureau of Indian Standards permits for hallmarking, with 14K, 20K, 23K and 24K, so an 18K ornament carries the same three marks a 22K one does: the BIS logo, the purity in caratage and fineness, and a six-digit HUID. What 916 and BIS hallmarking actually mean shows you where to find them.
Divide one fineness by the other and you have the whole of the metal difference. 750 ÷ 916 is 0.82. A gram of 18K contains roughly 18% less gold than a gram of 22K, and nothing about the design, the finish or the shop changes that number.
Carry that ratio into the showroom. Shops quote their own 18K rate of the day, and it is not always a straight scaling of the 22K rate on the same board — so ask for the day's 18K figure written on the estimate, and query it if it sits well above 82% of the 22K one. Our own ticker carries the rates families in Vellore ask for most, 22K at and 24K at per gram (); both are indicative and confirmed at billing, and the day's board is on today's gold rate in Vellore.
Why 18K usually carries the heavier labour
The carat does not set the making charge. The work does — and 18K is the carat that gets the fiddly work.
The reason is hardness. Replacing a quarter of the metal with copper, silver and other alloying elements makes 18K appreciably harder than 22K, and hardness is exactly what a stone setting needs. A prong is a small column of metal bent over a diamond and left under permanent tension for the next forty years. In soft metal it creeps, the grip slackens, and one morning the stone is not there. 22K is a beautiful metal and it is too soft to be trusted with that job.
The harder alloy also holds shapes that 22K cannot: thin galleries, knife-edge shanks, open filigree, rows of small stones set shoulder to shoulder. Every one of those is more operations at the bench, and every operation is billed labour.
Setting time also scales with the number of stones, not the weight of the gold. Sixty small diamonds are set one at a time under a loupe; the gold weight of that piece might be four grams, and the setting is days of work. That is how a light piece acquires a heavy making charge — and why per-gram thinking misleads on stone-set jewellery in a way it never does on a plain chain. Finishing adds more: stone-set pieces are polished around every setting by hand rather than tumbled, and white and rose 18K is normally rhodium plated on top.
None of this makes 18K inherently expensive to make. A plain 18K chain is a plain chain and is charged like one, while some of the heaviest making charges in any Tamil Nadu showroom sit on 22K — hand-raised temple work, nakashi chasing, a bridal haaram that occupied a craftsman for weeks. The tendency runs the way it does because of what each carat is used for; it is not a property of the carat.
The arithmetic, worked both ways
Here is the comparison on a single piece — 10 grams, in each carat. The rates below are illustrative and deliberately frozen so the sums stay checkable; your bill uses the rate on the day of billing. We use ₹13,255 per gram for 22K, the figure our making-charges guide works with, and ₹10,853 for 18K — that rate scaled by fineness (₹13,255 × 750 ÷ 916).
| Line | 22K (916) | 18K (750) |
|---|---|---|
| Gold content | 91.6% | 75.0% |
| Illustrative rate per gram | ₹13,255 | ₹10,853 |
| Gold value of a 10 g piece | ₹1,32,550 | ₹1,08,530 |
So far the 18K piece is ₹24,020 cheaper, purely as metal. Now apply the making charge four different ways — and watch the ranking change.
| How the charge is quoted | 22K, 10 g | 18K, 10 g | Dearer to make |
|---|---|---|---|
| Percentage, both at 12% | ₹15,906 | ₹13,024 | 22K, by ₹2,882 |
| Flat rate, both at ₹700 per gram | ₹7,000 | ₹7,000 | Neither — identical |
| Percentage, plain 22K at 10% and stone-set 18K at 18% | ₹13,255 | ₹19,535 | 18K, by ₹6,280 |
| Flat rate, plain 22K at ₹600/g and stone-set 18K at ₹1,200/g | ₹6,000 | ₹12,000 | 18K, by ₹6,000 |
The second row is the one to sit with. Under a flat per-gram charge, the carat is irrelevant to the making charge — the entire difference between the two pieces lives in the metal line. Under a percentage charge it is not irrelevant at all, because the percentage is being applied to two different numbers.
The point where the two meet is fixed by the fineness ratio. 916 ÷ 750 is 1.22, so an 18K percentage has to be about 1.22 times the 22K percentage before the two making charges are equal in rupees. If a shop quotes 12% on a 22K piece, an 18K piece at anything under about 14.7% is still the cheaper one to make. Above that, the finer work has overtaken the cheaper metal.
One thing the carat does not change: GST is 3% on the gold value and the making charges combined, in both cases — not 3% on the metal and 5% on the making, a split that belongs to job work rather than to your bill. It scales whichever total is larger, so it never flips the comparison; it only widens it.
Why 22K rules plain gold and 18K rules diamonds
The two carats have different jobs, and the Indian market has sorted them accordingly.
Plain Indian gold jewellery is 22K because more of every gram is thangam, gold itself. A kasumalai, a set of bangles, a plain chain — these get their strength from the thickness of the section, not from the hardness of the alloy, so there is no engineering reason to dilute them. There is also the colour. The deep yellow of 916 is what a family expects to see in a wedding trunk, and 18K reads noticeably paler beside it.
Diamond and stone-set jewellery is 18K for the mechanical reason above, and for a commercial one: fine diamond jewellery worldwide is made overwhelmingly in 18K and 14K, so the castings, the findings, the certified stones and the setters' training are all built around those alloys. A shop making a diamond piece in 22K would be working against the whole supply chain as well as against the metal.
When there are stones, the gold is not the story
On most diamond pieces, the gold is a minority of the bill. Which means the advice you sometimes hear — take it in 18K, the gold is cheaper — is technically true and practically small. You are shaving a percentage off the smaller half of the invoice.
The bigger risk on a stone-set piece is not the carat at all. It is weight. Ask for net gold weight and gross weight as two separate figures, in writing, on the estimate. Gross includes the stones; net does not. Do not pay stone weight as gold — the rule holds in any carat, but 18K is where the stone-set pieces are, so it is where the rule bites hardest, and no comparison between two shops means anything until both are quoting the same figure.
For context on our own pricing: value addition of 4–6% applies at V. Chetty on stone, casting, exclusive antique pieces and ornaments below 2 grams, printed on the tag before you decide.
18K is harder, but the settings are still the weakest part of any stone-set piece, which is why how to care for gold and stone-set jewellery matters more for an 18K ring than for a 22K bangle. A loose prong caught early costs a re-tip; caught late it costs a diamond.
What the lighter carat means at resale
You are paid for gold content, so a gram of 18K fetches less than a gram of 22K. That much is arithmetic and there is no way round it. How the payout is worked out at the counter — the assay reading, the refining deduction, exchange versus outright sale — is the subject of what you actually get back on 916 gold; what follows here is only what the carat changes.
The carat is not where the money goes. 18K is often described as though it were inferior gold; it is not. It is less gold per gram, tested and paid on the same fineness basis as anything else — and you paid less per gram for it. That trade is even. The uneven parts are the two everybody forgets:
- The making charge is not recovered, in either carat. Since 18K pieces tend to carry the heavier labour, the gap between what you paid and what the metal is worth is usually wider on 18K than on plain 22K.
- The stones are a separate negotiation entirely. Whoever buys the piece back values the diamonds on their own terms, and those terms have nothing to do with the gold rate.
We are not going to tell you what any shop will pay for a diamond back, because we do not know. Buyback and exchange terms vary from jeweller to jeweller and are the one thing genuinely worth getting in writing before you buy rather than after. Any page that offers you a single national figure for what a stone fetches on resale is guessing.
The honest split
If a purchase is mainly about holding gold, weight in 22K, plainly worked, is the efficient way to do it. If it is a piece you want to wear for thirty years, buy it in the carat that will survive being worn. Those are two decisions, not one argument.
What to ask when the carats differ
Five carat-specific questions, on top of the ones that apply to any two quotes you are comparing. None is awkward, and any jeweller used to explaining a bill answers them without a pause.
- What is your 18K rate today, and how does it relate to your 22K rate? You are checking it against the 82% figure, and you want it written on the estimate rather than said across the counter.
- Is the making charge a percentage of gold value or a flat rate per gram? Without this answer, the two quotes in front of you are not comparable at all.
- What is the net gold weight, and what is the gross weight? Two numbers, separately, especially on anything with stones in it.
- Is the piece hallmarked, and can I see the HUID? 18K carries the mark 18K750 where 22K carries 22K916 — a different number, the same three marks.
- What are the exchange and buyback terms, and what happens to the stones? Ask now. The answer is much harder to obtain later.
A shop that will not put the net gold weight on an estimate is not necessarily doing anything wrong, but it is making the only comparison that matters impossible for you. Ask again, and if it still is not written down, that in itself is information.
Questions we are asked
Is 18K gold cheaper than 22K?
As metal, yes. A gram of 18K holds about 82% of the gold that a gram of 22K holds, and it is priced accordingly. The finished piece is a separate question, because 18K is the carat used for stone-set and fine work, and on a diamond piece the stones may cost more than the gold does.
Do 18K pieces always carry higher making charges than 22K?
No. The carat does not set the charge; the work does. A plain 18K chain is charged like a plain chain, and some of the highest making charges in any showroom sit on hand-worked 22K bridal pieces. What is true is that 18K is chosen for the fiddly work, so 18K pieces carry heavier labour more often than not.
Is 18K gold hallmarked in India?
Yes. 18K, marked 750, is one of the purities the Bureau of Indian Standards permits for hallmarking, alongside 14K, 20K, 22K, 23K and 24K. An 18K ornament should carry the BIS logo, the purity in caratage and fineness, and a six-digit HUID, exactly as a 22K ornament does.
Will I get less back when I sell an 18K piece?
Per gram, yes, because you are paid for gold content and 18K contains less of it. You also paid less per gram for it, so the carat itself is not where the loss sits. The larger gaps are the making charge, which is not recovered in either carat, and the stones, which any buyer values on their own terms. Ask for exchange and buyback terms in writing before you buy, not after.
Send us the two estimates
If you are weighing an 18K piece against a 22K one, send us both estimates on WhatsApp and we will tell you which line is doing the work — the metal or the making.