How the tola to grams conversion works
One tola equals 11.6638 grams, and every conversion on this page multiplies or divides by that one factor. The tola is the working unit of the South Asian gold trade. Shops announce the daily rate per tola, families speak of sets and bangles in tola, and the international market prices gold per troy ounce in grams and dollars. The converter above takes tola, masha, or ratti on one side and grams on the other, and it prints the factor inside the result card, because gold figures deserve a paper trail.
Gold trade works in thousandths of a gram, so this converter reports three decimal places. A rounding choice that would pass unnoticed in a kitchen recipe moves real money at a jeweller's counter, and the third decimal place is where it lives.
Tola to grams table
The table below runs in half-tola steps to 5 tola, where household purchases cluster, and then in whole tola to 50 for bars and family holdings.
| Tola | Grams | Tola | Grams |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0.5 | 5.832 g | 8 | 93.310 g |
| 1 | 11.664 g | 9 | 104.974 g |
| 1.5 | 17.496 g | 10 | 116.638 g |
| 2 | 23.328 g | 15 | 174.957 g |
| 2.5 | 29.160 g | 20 | 233.276 g |
| 3 | 34.991 g | 25 | 291.595 g |
| 3.5 | 40.823 g | 30 | 349.914 g |
| 4 | 46.655 g | 40 | 466.552 g |
| 4.5 | 52.487 g | 50 | 583.190 g |
| 5 | 58.319 g | ||
| 6 | 69.983 g | ||
| 7 | 81.647 g |
Grams to tola table
Buyers who hold a weight in grams, from a certificate or a foreign receipt, need the reverse journey for the round gram amounts people actually hold.
| Grams | Tola | Grams | Tola |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10 g | 0.857 | 150 g | 12.861 |
| 20 g | 1.715 | 200 g | 17.147 |
| 25 g | 2.143 | 250 g | 21.434 |
| 50 g | 4.287 | 300 g | 25.721 |
| 75 g | 6.430 | 400 g | 34.294 |
| 100 g | 8.574 | 500 g | 42.868 |
The unit chain: tola, masha, ratti, gram
Traditional invoices write one weight as a chain of three units, and the chain converts link by link into grams.
| Unit | Relation | Weight in grams |
|---|---|---|
| 1 tola | 12 masha, 96 ratti | 11.6638 g |
| 1 masha | 8 ratti, one twelfth of a tola | 0.972 g |
| 1 ratti | one ninety-sixth of a tola | 0.1215 g |
| 7.5 tola | the gold nisab weight | 87.48 g |
An invoice line that reads 5 tola 6 masha 4 ratti therefore totals 5 tola plus half a tola plus a twenty-fourth of a tola, which is 5.542 tola, or 64.633 g. The converter handles the chain in one entry when you pick the input unit, and it also restates any result in invoice style.
Bars and coins across two systems
Bars and coins arrive stamped in whichever system their mint used, and the two systems meet at family counters every week.
| Item | Tola | Grams | Troy ounces |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 tola bar | 1 | 11.664 g | 0.375 |
| 5 tola bar | 5 | 58.319 g | 1.875 |
| 10 tola bar | 10 | 116.638 g | 3.750 |
| 1 troy ounce coin | 2.667 | 31.104 g | 1.000 |
| 1 sovereign coin | 0.686 | 8.000 g | 0.257 |
Worked examples
5 tola to grams. Multiply 5 by 11.6638 and the result is 58.319 g. A wedding bangle quoted at 5 tola carries that weight of metal, whatever purity the karat stamp adds to the story.
10 tola to grams. Multiply 10 by 11.6638 and the result is 116.638 g. The standard bar of the region weighs that much, and the figure surprises every buyer who expected a round 100 g.
100 g to tola. Divide 100 by 11.6638 and the result is 8.574 tola. A certificate written in grams converts to a number a sarafa shop can price against the day's per-tola rate without argument.
One tola against the weights buyers confuse it with
Three numbers circulate in every gold conversation, and they are not close to each other. The bar chart below puts one tola, one troy ounce, and one sovereign on a single gram scale.
The troy ounce outweighs the tola by a factor of about 2.67. A reader who hears an international price per ounce and compares it directly with a local price per tola compares a heavy unit against a light one and reaches a verdict the numbers never supported.
Common mistakes
- The 10 gram shortcut. Treating one tola as 10 g undercounts every weight by about 14 percent, and at 10 tola the gap reaches 16.638 g.
- Comparing a per-tola rate with a per-ounce rate. The units differ by a factor of 2.67, so convert the weight before you compare the price.
- Reading a bill total as metal value. Making charges and wastage sit outside the per-tola metal rate and arrive as separate lines.
- Ignoring karat in a price check. The rate on the screen is 24-karat, and a 22-karat piece prices off 22/24 of its weight in pure gold.
- Trusting a home scale past its limit. A kitchen scale settles family arithmetic and loses arguments at a counter, where a calibrated shop scale governs.
Why I built this converter
My first gold purchase was a bracelet for my mother, and I had saved for it for over two years. The jeweller spoke in tola. The price ticker on the shop television spoke in tola. Then the bill arrived, handwritten, in grams, with the making charges folded into the same ink, and I stood at the counter unable to check a single line of it. I paid. A grown man paid a bill he could not read, for the most careful purchase of his life, and smiled while he did it.
At home that evening I spread the bill beside a calculator and tried to prove it to myself. The gram figure would not reconcile with the tola figure the shop had quoted, because I did not know whether the difference was making charges, wastage, or my own weak arithmetic. I could not tell an honest bill from a padded one. That specific embarrassment, more than the money, stayed with me.
The tool above answers to that evening. I built it so the next buyer can do at the counter what I could not: audit the bill line by line, in a shop he chose himself, with money he saved himself, and check every figure before he pays instead of after he gets home. It prints the factor in the result, it speaks masha and ratti because old invoices still do, and it keeps three decimal places because gold does. Before any family purchase now, I convert at home first and argue with the numbers at my own table, where arguing is free.
Read next
- The bracelet bill I could not check: reading a jeweller's invoice line by line
- Three sarafa shops weighed the same bangle: a selling-side field test
- 24-karat price on the screen, 22-karat gold on the wrist: the purity conversion nobody shows you
- Zakat night at our house: weighing family gold and checking the nisab in grams
- My father's 10-tola bar says nothing about grams: bars, ounces, and one stubborn conversion
- Masha and ratti still live on gold invoices: a decoder for the small print
- Planning a wedding gold set on a gram budget in a tola market
- Five tola is not fifty grams: the round-number trap in gold buying
- Weighing gold at home without fooling yourself: my kitchen scale protocol
- My grandfather's brass tola weights still pass: verifying old measures against a digital scale
Questions people ask about this page
Is the tola the same in Pakistan, India, and Bangladesh?
Yes. The tola holds the same value of 11.6638 g in all three countries, and Bangladesh calls the same weight a bhori. A buyer can carry the factor across the region without adjustment. Only the currency and the making charges change at the border.
Why is a 10 tola bar not 100 grams?
A tola is 11.6638 g, not 10 g, so ten tola come to 116.638 g. The round-number shortcut undercounts the bar by 16.638 g, which is more than a full tola of gold. Bars stamped 10 tola always mean 116.638 g.
What does 22-karat weight mean against 24-karat weight?
Karat measures purity, not weight, and a 22-karat piece holds 22 parts pure gold in 24. The piece weighs the same on the scale, and only its pure gold content drops to 22/24 of its weight. Jewellers quote the headline rate for 24-karat gold, so a 22-karat price per tola always sits lower.
How do masha and ratti appear on a gold invoice?
Traditional invoices write a weight as a chain, for example 5 tola 6 masha 4 ratti. One tola holds 12 masha and one masha holds 8 ratti, so the full chain converts part by part into grams. The converter on this page accepts all three units and totals them for you.
Does the gold price per tola include making charges?
No. The announced per-tola rate covers the metal only, at 24-karat purity. Making charges, wastage allowances, and stone deductions arrive as separate lines on the bill. A buyer who compares the bill total against the headline rate without separating the lines will always think the shop overcharged.
How many grams is 1 tola of gold?
One tola of gold weighs 11.6638 g. The value comes from the old standard of 180 troy grains and applies to every purity, because karat changes the gold content and not the weight on the scale. Five tola therefore weigh 58.319 g and ten tola weigh 116.638 g.
Facts, checked against trusted sources
- One tola equals 180 troy grains, and that relation gives the modern value of 11.6638 grams that the gold trade uses across South Asia. Source: Encyclopaedia Britannica, tola entry
- Daily gold rates in Pakistan are announced per tola by the All Pakistan Sarafa Gems and Jewellers Association and reported in the national business press. Source: Dawn Business, gold rate reports
- International gold trades by the troy ounce, and one troy ounce equals 31.1035 g, so a per-tola price and a per-ounce price never compare directly without a conversion. Source: NIST unit relations for the troy ounce
