Gold Time Machine: the gold price on any date
Pick a day since September 2000 to see gold's close, what happened next and what $1,000 of gold bought then is worth today, before and after inflation.
Pick a date and press Travel back. The result loads from our daily gold data (about 25 KB).
A game for learning, not a signal. Nothing here predicts prices or tells you to buy or sell. Past prices do not predict future prices.
How the Gold Time Machine works
The Gold Time Machine answers a simple question: what was the gold price on a given date, and what happened next? Pick any day since September 2000 and it shows gold's close that day, the move over that calendar month, and the change one week, one month and one year later and all the way to today, in dollars per ounce and in percent.
It then works out what $1,000 of gold bought that day would be worth at the latest close, and puts it next to inflation: the same $1,000 scaled by the US consumer price index to today's money. Gold can be up in dollars and still lag inflation over some stretches; the tool shows both so the comparison is fair.
Where the numbers come from
- Prices: COMEX gold futures (GC=F) daily settlements via Yahoo Finance, the same series as our gold price history and the monthly archive pages. Data updated 2026-10-31.
- Inflation: US CPI-U from FRED (CPIAUCSL), monthly. The latest CPI month lags the price data by a few weeks.
- Events: the release days in our NFP-day study, CPI-day study and Fed decision study.
- Currencies: today's rates only (the same feed as gold price in your currency), so local-currency values are today's value converted today, not a historical return.
Gold on this date in past years
| Date | Close | Change since | % | $1,000 then is now |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 30 Oct 2025 | $4,015.9 | $-117.0 | −2.9% | $971 |
| 30 Oct 2024 | $2,800.8 | $1,098.1 | +39.2% | $1,392 |
| 29 Oct 2021 | $1,783.9 | $2,115.0 | +118.6% | $2,186 |
| 28 Oct 2016 | $1,275.5 | $2,623.4 | +205.7% | $3,057 |
| 28 Oct 2011 | $1,746.2 | $2,152.7 | +123.3% | $2,233 |
| 30 Oct 2006 | $604.7 | $3,294.2 | +544.8% | $6,448 |
| 30 Oct 2001 | $280.6 | $3,618.3 | +1289.5% | $13,895 |
Each date links straight into the Time Machine. For a whole month of daily closes, open the month in the gold price by month archive; for gold's long-run drivers see what moves gold prices, and to size a real trade today use the position size calculator.
Reading the result honestly
A past date is picked with hindsight, so a great-looking "if you had bought" result says nothing about the next ten years. Gold has also had long flat and falling stretches: from the 2011 high it took years to recover. Futures prices include a small premium over spot, and real buyers pay spreads, storage and sometimes tax. Use the Time Machine to build intuition for how big gold's swings are, not as evidence that any timing works.
Frequently asked questions
What was the gold price on a specific date?
Pick the date in the Gold Time Machine above. It shows the COMEX gold futures (GC=F) settlement for that day from our daily data, which goes back to 30 August 2000. If markets were closed (a weekend or holiday), it uses the last trading day before your date and says so.
How much would $1,000 of gold bought in 2000 or 2010 be worth today?
The tool divides $1,000 by the close on your date to get the ounces you could have bought, then values them at the latest close. It ignores costs, storage, taxes and the small gap between futures and physical gold, so treat it as an illustration, not an investment return.
How is the inflation-adjusted value calculated?
With the US consumer price index (CPI-U, FRED series CPIAUCSL). $1,000 in the month you picked is scaled by the CPI change to the latest month available, which shows what the same buying power costs today. The real return compares your gold’s value today with that figure.
Can I see the result in rupees, euros or pounds?
The site only has today’s exchange rates, not historical ones, so the purchase is always calculated in US dollars. You can show today’s value converted at today’s rate, and the tool labels it that way. A true local-currency return would need the exchange rate on your date too.
What does 'Gold on your birthday' show?
For the day and month you picked, it checks every year since 2000 when that date was a trading day and lists gold’s change on the day: how many years it rose, the best and the worst year. It is a fun statistic, not a pattern to trade.
Where do the events shown for a week come from?
Only from our own release studies: the per-release tables in the NFP, CPI and Fed decision studies (NFP and CPI from 2020, Fed decisions from 2025). If no study release fell in your week, nothing is shown. We never add events by hand.
More in the Gold Lab
Educational game only. Not financial advice and not a signal. Prices are COMEX gold futures (GC=F), which differ slightly from spot XAUUSD. See our risk disclaimer.