MEASURED · 5 OCTOBER 2026

Platinum vs gold price: which has cost more, every month since 1960

For most of the last 60 years an ounce of platinum cost more than an ounce of gold. Since 2015 it has cost less, and by 2025 it cost less than a third as much. Below: every month of both prices, how long each metal led, what each returned, and what happened after platinum looked cheapest against gold.

The short answer

Platinum and gold prices since 1960

Amber: gold. Grey: platinum. Monthly averages in dollars of the day (World Bank). Log scale, so equal heights are equal percentage moves. Before 1968 gold was held at the official $35, so the 1960s gap is partly the peg, not the market.

Which cost more, decade by decade

Since gold floated in August 1971, the lead has changed hands 21 times on monthly averages. Before 2015 gold’s turns in front were short: the longest lasted 20 months. The current one has lasted 141.

How many ounces of platinum an ounce of gold buys

In September 2026 one ounce of gold bought 2.42 ounces of platinum. Since August 1971 the ratio has run from 0.34 in September 1971, when platinum cost about three times as much as gold, to 3.38 in May 2025. Its middle value is 0.92, and it was lower than today in 96.8% of all months: platinum has rarely been this cheap against gold.

The cheapest stretch ended abruptly. From January 2025 to September 2026 platinum rose 88% and gold 59.4%, and in January 2026 platinum’s monthly average reached $2,434, above its 2008 high of $2,052 for the first time. By September 2026 it was back to $1,784.

What each metal returned

From January 2015 to September 2026, platinum’s gain of 43.6% only kept pace with US consumer prices. In August 2026 dollars platinum’s February 1980 average of $882 is worth about $3,745, so after inflation platinum is still well below its 1980 high, while gold is +51.8% above its January 1980 average after inflation.

Falls of 40% or more

A fall counts from a peak to the lowest monthly average before a 40% rally off that low, on monthly averages from August 1971; daily prices swing further. Platinum had 5 such falls, gold 3.

Does cheap platinum catch up with gold?

A common argument for buying platinum is that it is cheap against gold and must catch up. We took the fifth of months since August 1971 in which an ounce of gold bought the most platinum and asked whether platinum then beat gold.

It went the other way. Over three years, platinum beat gold after only 21.4% of its cheapest months, against 43.2% of the rest. The “random walk” column is the check: we rebuilt the ratio 2,000 times from its own monthly moves in shuffled 12-month blocks, so it has no pull toward any level. Even then, platinum “caught up” after its cheapest months 59.5% of the time in the typical history, because in any finite record the cheapest stretch tends to be followed by a less cheap one. The real record fell short of that in 92.5% of the random histories.

Two limits. The three-year result rests on 4 separate episodes, and one of them, June 2015 to September 2023, supplies 100 of the 126 months; that is too few to say cheap platinum will keep getting cheaper. What the record does show is that “it is cheap, so it will catch up” has not worked here.

Platinum and gold prices by year

Yearly averages of the World Bank monthly averages, in dollars of the day; the dearer metal each year is in bold.

What this means if you are choosing between them

• Neither price order is permanent. Platinum led for most of the record and gold has led since 2015; the lead changed 21 times after 1971.
• “Cheap against gold” has not been a buy signal. See the test above.
• Platinum has crashed more often. It had 5 falls of 40% or more on monthly averages since 1971, gold 3, and 3 of platinum’s took 14 years or more to get back to the old peak.

Gold’s own record is in gold price history and is gold a good investment?; silver’s in silver price history and the gold-silver ratio, tested. This page is a measurement, not a forecast or personal advice.

How we measured it

Prices: World Bank Commodity Price Data (the Pink Sheet), monthly averages in US dollars per troy ounce, January 1960 to September 2026, release of 2 October 2026. Inflation: BLS CPI-U to August 2026. Leads: a month counts for the metal with the higher monthly average. Cheap-platinum test: the top fifth of gold/platinum months from August 1971 for each horizon, against 2,000 random-walk histories built from the ratio’s own monthly changes in 12-month blocks; episodes are runs of those months merged when fewer than 12 months apart.

Common questions