Palladium spot price explained: ounces and grams

Which palladium price are you looking at?

A page labelled “palladium price” usually shows a spot quote in US dollars per troy ounce. Keep the timestamp attached to that observation. A dealer’s price for a particular coin or bar also includes a premium, so it need not match the spot quote. Identify the currency, unit and price type before comparing two screens.

Palladium is a platinum-group metal used heavily in vehicle catalytic converters. The US Geological Survey describes this use and reports mine production concentrated in a few countries. Its Mineral Commodity Summaries 2026 shows Russia and South Africa as the largest palladium producers. Recycling also contributes to supply.

Worked example: USD per troy ounce to USD per gram

Take an illustrative quote of USD 1,200 per troy ounce. One troy ounce is exactly 31.1034768 grams. Divide the quote by 31.1034768 to obtain about USD 38.58 per gram. This changes the price denominator; it does not change the observation time or add a dealer premium.

Keep the full factor in the calculation and round the displayed result at the end. Multiply an ounce weight by the factor to obtain grams, but divide an ounce price by it to obtain a gram price. The ordinary ounce used for many everyday weights is a different unit. Select troy ounces when checking palladium weights in the converter.

1,200 USD/ozt ÷ 31.1034768 g/ozt ≈ 38.58 USD/g
100 ozt × 31.1034768 g/ozt = 3,110.34768 g

Gross weight and fine palladium content

A weight reading alone does not tell you how much palladium an item contains. In an illustrative example, an item with a stated fineness of 999.5 parts per thousand and a gross weight of 100 grams contains 99.95 grams of fine palladium by calculation. That assumes the stated weight and fineness are correct.

To estimate a metal-content value, apply a compatible fine-palladium quote to the fine-palladium weight. A finished coin or bar price can also include fabrication, a dealer premium, taxes and delivery. A mass conversion cannot calculate those charges. Check which charges a dealer includes before comparing the result with a retail price.

Request a palladium spot price

Use GET /v1/commodities/spot/XPD/USD to request palladium in US dollars. Palladium uses the symbol XPD and is available in USD only. Other currency combinations return 404. The response below is illustrative.

The price field contains one indicative price as a decimal string. The symbol identifies the metal and currency, and the unit is troy_ounce. The timestamp is UTC and marks the start of the minute the price belongs to. The stale field is true or false.

For price history, use GET /v1/commodities/spot/XPD/USD/bars. The interval parameter accepts 1m, 5m, 15m, 1h, 4h or 1d, with 1d as the default. Responses contain closed bars, oldest first, with open, high, low and close. Missing bars stay missing, with no gap filling. Minute bars are kept for 30 days; hourly and daily bars are kept indefinitely, within the plan’s history window.

The MCP tools are commodities_get_spot_price for a spot quote and commodities_get_price_history for history.

curl --request GET "https://api.narwhalapi.com/v1/commodities/spot/XPD/USD" \
  --header "Authorization: Bearer $NARWHAL_API_KEY"

# Illustrative response
{
  "symbol": "XPD-USD",
  "price": "1200.00",
  "currency": "USD",
  "unit": "troy_ounce",
  "timestamp": "2026-10-09T12:00:00Z",
  "stale": false
}

Display the palladium price honestly

Show the currency, unit and timestamp next to the price. If you display a converted gram price, label it as USD per gram and keep the original timestamp. The conversion does not create a new market observation.

Narwhal has a daily pause from 21:00 to 22:00 UTC, when responses carry stale: true. Quotes can also be stale while markets are closed. Label a stale quote as stale and do not present it as a live market price. Keep that status visible after converting the unit.