goldprice.dev vs APMEX
APMEX is one of the largest online bullion dealers — a place to actually buy gold and silver. goldprice.dev is the developer API: JSON responses, 31 currencies, and MCP on every plan.
It's the better site if you're buying metal, not calling an endpoint.
- →It actually sells gold and silver. More than 20,000 coins, bars, and rounds from major mints, including the U.S. Mint and Royal Canadian Mint. goldprice.dev sells no metal — it's data-only.
- →Real-time bid and ask, on the page. APMEX's own site states you can see real-time bid and ask prices throughout the site — built for a buyer deciding whether to purchase right now.
- →An embeddable price widget. A customizable Gold/Silver/Platinum/Palladium spot-price widget other site owners can copy onto their own pages after logging into an APMEX account — a ready-made display, not a raw feed.
- →A large, long-running retail operation. Founded in 1999, APMEX describes itself as the world's largest online retailer of precious metals, with over $11 billion in transactions since founding — an established retail track record goldprice.dev, a data API, doesn't compete on.
Built to be called from code, not embedded as a widget.
- ✓An actual documented API. A REST API with an API key, a free tier, and versioned endpoints. We could not find a published, self-serve developer API on apmex.com — see the FAQ above.
- ✓JSON you can parse, not a fixed widget. Every response is structured JSON with unit-annotated fields, an
is_staleflag, and per-source attribution viasources[]— shape it into your own UI instead of embedding a preset widget. - ✓No account required to pull prices. APMEX's widget embed code sits behind a login. goldprice.dev's live XAU spot endpoint works without an API key at all, up to a per-IP hourly limit.
- ✓MCP on every plan. A native Model Context Protocol server, including on Free, so an AI agent can query live gold prices directly.
- ✓31 currencies, computed live. Gold spot in 31 currencies on every tier, computed from live USD spot × FX — APMEX's widget is priced in USD.
- ✓The actual retail price, by country. Live dealer sell & buyback quotes with premium-over-spot across 12 countries, from $10 Physical.
- ✓Free tier that fits a script. 1,000 calls/month, no credit card.
Head-to-head, line by line
We could not find a published, self-serve developer API on apmex.com (only an embeddable widget), so most rows compare a bullion retailer to a developer API rather than API feature to API feature.
| Feature | goldprice.dev | APMEX |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | ||
| Product type | Developer API | Online bullion retailer |
| Sells physical gold/silver/platinum/palladium | — | ✓ 20,000+ products |
| Published developer API / JSON feed | ✓ | None found |
| Embeddable price widget | — | ✓ login required |
| MCP server | All plans | — |
| Coverage | ||
| Gold (XAU) spot | ✓ | ✓ |
| Silver · platinum · palladium | Silver + copper, Pro+ | ✓ all four |
| Currencies | 31, computed live | USD |
| Real-time bid/ask on-page | — | ✓ per APMEX's own claim |
| Per-country dealer prices (12 countries) | ✓ Physical+ | — |
| Developer experience | ||
| Access without an account | ✓ | — |
is_stale flag | ✓ | — |
sources[] array via ?include=sources | ✓ | — |
| Published methodology (per-source provenance) | ✓ | — |
| Pricing & access | ||
| Free access | 1,000 calls/mo, no key needed to browse pricing | Free to browse; widget requires an account |
| Cheapest paid plan | $10/mo | N/A — sells physical metal, not a data plan |
Source: apmex.com (About + Price Widget page) as of 2026-07-25. Last verified 2026-07-25.
Reference prices for informational purposes only. Not investment advice.
Who should pick which
This isn't really a competitive choice — it's two different jobs. Pick based on whether you're buying metal or writing code.
You want to actually buy or sell physical gold or silver.
You're placing an order for coins, bars, or rounds, or you want a spot-price widget to embed on your own site by copy-pasting a login-gated code snippet.
You're writing code that needs a live gold price.
You're building an app, a bot, an internal dashboard, or an AI agent that needs to fetch gold, silver, or copper prices programmatically, including what gold actually costs to buy in 12 countries, with a documented API, rate limits, and MCP support.
Landed here by mistake?
If you want to buy metal or embed a preset widget, APMEX is the established name. If you're about to write a fetch call, you're in the right place.
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