Gold Making Charges: All you need to know

By Team Gullak

Apr 1, 2025

4 min read

Making charges play a significant role in the final price of gold jewellery, in turn affecting your gold purchase decisions. These charges, levied for transforming raw gold into wearable ornaments, are influenced by a multitude of factors, including the complexity of the design, the skill of the artisan, and the reputation of the jeweller. This article is all you need to understand why gold making charges exist, components to this, how to calculate gold making charges and ways to get the lowest making charges on gold.

What are Gold Making Charges?

When purchasing gold jewellery, not only do you pay for the gold metal but also for the artistry and labour that led to converting the raw gold to a beautiful ornament. The extra charge that you pay for the labour, time and skill involved is called gold making charge.

Anatomy of Gold jewellery making charges

The below mentioned factors are the key contributors to gold making charges:

Design Complexity - The more complex the design, the more making charges applicable
Weight of the jewellery - heavier jewellery requires more labour efforts and hence have higher making charges
Brand Value - Finally, making charges are also determined by the brand’s reputation in the market. Well known brands generally have higher making charges compared to local jewellers.

How to calculate Gold Making Charges?

You can use the below formulas to calculate gold making charges, depending on the charges applicable:

Just Making charges applicable:

Gold Making charges = Total Jewellery Cost - (Gold weight * Gold rate)

Let’s take an example, if your bill comes out to be ₹100,000 and the metal(gold) weight is 10 gms →

Gold making charges = 100,000 - (10 * gold rate)

Let’s say, Gold is trending at 9000/gm then,

Gold making charges = 100,000 - (10 * 9000) = ₹10,000

Making charge & Wastage charge applicable:

In case, there’s an additional wastage charge applied to the bill, use the below formula to derive at the making charge:

Total Jewellery Cost = (Gold Weight × Gold Rate) + (Gold Weight × Making Charge/gm) + Wastage Charges

Note: The above calculation does not involve the GST applicable on the jewellery.

Gold making charges across Popular jewellers in India

While making charges vary even within the jeweller, depending on the ornament, design complexity, premiumness of the collection etc, in this section we will share the range of making charges you can expect across popular jewellers.

Jewellers	Gold jewellery making charges
Tanishq	8%-25%
Malabar Gold and Diamonds	16%-26%
Kalyan Jewellers	5%-30%
Senco Gold	3%-25%

For more details on making charges across ornaments, you can check out our detailed articles on Tanishq, Malabar and Kalyan making charges.

Bonus section: Things to do to avoid any unwanted charges on jewellery

Get a detailed breakdown of the price from the jeweller
Compare prices across different jewellers
If you like a design online, try to find a trustworthy local jeweller to replicate the design to avoid high making charges(note: It is important to get this done only from trustworthy jewellers, to avoid adulteration of gold and ensure other quality checks)
Always negotiate on the extra charges. Jewellers have the buffer to give you some extra discounts, all you have to do is ask.
Try buying jewellery during festive seasons like Akshaya Tritiya or Dhanteras, when all jewellers run hefty discounts on making charges
If you do not require the jewellery urgently, you can try out solutions like Gullak. With Gullak, you buy gold digitally and you gold quantity increases by 5% every year. So, if you invest 100 gms today, it’ll become 105 gms in 1 year and 148 gms in 8 years, giving you 50% extra gold! Gullak is tied with most of the major jewellery brands across India, hence you can use your Gullak Savings to redeem jewellery at a later date as well.

Start with just ₹100/day!

Explore Gullak

Gold Making charges conclusion

In India, Gold is more than an investment, it is a necessity for various festivities and cultural traditions we have. Be it gold for your marriage, your kid’s future, gifting a loved one or even storing gold to safeguard from future uncertainties, it is crucial for us to buy gold at some point in our life. Hence, having a strategic approach, like checking for the lowest making charges on gold or using a systematic approach to gold accumulation with Gullak, can come in handy during your final purchase.

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