Metal price symbols
Price screens, trading apps and data feeds rarely spell out "gold." They use short codes like XAU and GC. Here is what each one means and where you'll see it.
| Metal | Chemical symbol | ISO 4217 code | ISO number | COMEX futures | Spot pair |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gold | Au | XAU | 959 | GC | XAU/USD |
| Silver | Ag | XAG | 961 | SI | XAG/USD |
| Platinum | Pt | XPT | 962 | PL | XPT/USD |
| Palladium | Pd | XPD | 964 | PA | XPD/USD |
| Copper | Cu | XCU (informal) | None | HG | XCU/USD |
ISO 4217 codes
ISO 4217 is the international standard for currency codes, the same list that gives the US dollar USD and the euro EUR. It also covers four precious metals, because banks hold and trade them much like currencies. Codes that don't belong to a country start with X, which is why gold is XAU and not something like GLD.
When a bank statement, trading platform or price API shows XAU, it almost always means one troy ounce of gold.
COMEX futures symbols
Futures contracts on the COMEX exchange in New York use their own root symbols: GC for gold, SI for silver, PL for platinum, PA for palladium and HG for copper. A month and year code follows the root, so GCZ6 is the December 2026 gold contract.
Codes in price feeds
Most metals price APIs follow the currency-pair style. A request for XAU with USD as the base returns dollars per troy ounce of gold. Some feeds flip it and return how many ounces one dollar buys, a tiny decimal, so check which way a provider quotes before you build on it.
Ticker symbols for exchange-traded funds are a different thing. GLD and IAU are funds that hold gold. They trade like stocks and their prices are not the spot price.
Common questions
- What does XAU stand for?
- X marks a code that isn't tied to a country, and AU comes from aurum, the Latin word for gold. XAG follows the same pattern from argentum, the Latin for silver.
- What does XAU/USD mean?
- The price of one troy ounce of gold in US dollars. Price feeds treat gold like a currency pair, so XAU/EUR is the gold price in euros and XAU/GBP is the price in pounds.
- Is XCU an official code for copper?
- No. ISO 4217 only assigns codes to gold, silver, platinum and palladium. Many data providers use XCU for copper by convention, but you won't find it in the standard.