goldprice.dev vs metals-api
metals-api.com is a generalist metals + FX catalog. We're a commodity specialist that answers what gold's worth and what it costs to buy — per-source transparency, per-country dealer prices, and MCP on every plan.
Breadth is their thing, and they're good at it.
- →Every metal, everywhere. Full metals catalog plus FX. If you need one API key to cover the long tail of precious and industrial metals, they deliver.
- →170+ currencies. We serve gold spot in 31 currencies (realtime USD spot × live exchangerate.dev FX). If your app needs gold priced in Paraguayan guaraní today, you want them, not us.
- →Fixer-compatible API shape. If you've used Fixer.io, metals-api's endpoint shape will feel familiar. Drop-in migration is realistic.
- →Long-tail industrial metals. Aluminum, zinc, nickel, rhodium, and others with 15+ years of daily bars. We ship copper as copper futures settlement, but nothing beyond that.
We're not trying to be a metals catalog.
- ✓Every source visible.
sources[]via?include=sources— live oracle XAU + XAG, continuous spot reference, gold + silver + copper futures settlement, ECB reference rates, tokenized gold PAXG, each with license and source timestamp. metals-api serves a single blended number with no provenance. - ✓Live oracle + futures settlement as distinct attributed sources. We ship gold at $10 Physical, silver + copper at $30Pro — each source carries its own license and timestamp. metals-api doesn't expose live oracle or futures settlement as distinct attributed sources at any tier.
- ✓Depth across three metals. Spot, futures, differentials, ETF flows, and positioning data — for gold, silver, and copper. metals-api gives you spot and historical across every metal and stops there.
- ✓The real price of gold at the counter, by country. Live dealer sell & buyback quotes with premium-over-spot across 12 countries, from $10Physical. Their breadth is every metal, everywhere; ours is what gold actually costs to buy, which their spot feed doesn't touch.
- ✓MCP on every plan. Native Model Context Protocol server with eight tools. metals-api has no MCP offering.
- ✓Published methodology, source-level. Our methodology doc names the providers, licenses, and staleness thresholds. Versioned and changelogged.
- ✓No auto-bill overage. We
429you. They'll charge you. - ✓Agent-native output. Unit-annotated, staleness-flagged, symbol-canonical responses an LLM can reason about without a post-processing layer.
Head-to-head, line by line
Feature-level comparison against metals-api.com's published plans as of April 2026.
| Feature | goldprice.dev | metals-api |
|---|---|---|
| Data coverage | ||
| Gold (XAU) spot + history | ✓ | ✓ |
| Silver (XAG) spot + futures | ✓ Pro+ | ✓ |
| Copper (HG) futures | ✓ Pro+ | ✓ |
| Other industrial metals (Al, Ni, Zn…) | — | ✓ |
| Currencies supported | 31 | 170+ |
| Live oracle XAU/USD real-time | ✓ Physical+ | — |
| Live oracle XAG/USD real-time | ✓ Pro+ | — |
| gold futures settlement (GC) | ✓ Pro+ | — |
| SI settlement (silver futures) | ✓ Pro+ | — |
| copper futures settlement (HG) | ✓ Pro+ | — |
| Spot/futures differentials | ✓ | — |
| ETF · CB · COT data | ✓ | — |
| Per-country dealer prices (12 countries) | ✓ Physical+ | — |
| Analytics | ||
| Forward view: futures settlement curve | ✓ XAU all plans · XAG/HG Pro+ | — |
Cross-source divergence data via /v1/prices/divergence | ✓ | — |
| Developer experience | ||
| MCP server | All plans | — |
| TypeScript / Python SDK | REST + MCP instead | Community |
| Published methodology (per-source provenance) | ✓ | — |
sources[] array via ?include=sources | ✓ | — |
is_stale flag | ✓ | — |
| Pricing & limits | ||
| Cheapest paid plan | $10/mo (incl. dealer prices) | $29/mo |
| Production plan | $30/mo | $99/mo |
| Overage policy | 429, never auto-bill | Auto-bills |
Source: metals-api.com public pricing page + our own plans. Last verified 2026-04-20.
Reference prices for informational purposes only. Not investment advice.
Who should pick which
If you need a metals catalog, go there. If gold, silver, or copper are the product — not a checkbox — come here.
You need a generalist metals + FX feed.
You're building a commodity dashboard, a metals-purchasing calculator for a manufacturer, or an FX-heavy product that happens to also quote precious metals. Breadth matters more than depth.
Gold, silver, or copper is the product, not a line item.
You're building a commodity-focused fintech, an AI agent that reasons about precious and industrial metals, or a quant tool that needs basis, positioning data, a forward view, or per-country dealer prices, and the exact source and license behind each number matters.
FAQ
Is goldprice.dev a good alternative to metals-api.com for agent and quant builders?
Yes. goldprice.dev exposes the live oracle spot and futures settlement as separate rows in the sources[] array (via ?include=sources) — the gold live oracle starts at $10 Physical, while futures settlement (gold, silver, copper) and the silver oracle are on $30 Pro — with per-source license and source timestamp. Pro adds a cross-source divergence flag and extends the forward view (futures settlement curve) to silver and copper — gold's forward view is on every plan. metals-api.com is a generalist metals + FX feed that serves a single blended number per metal without source provenance — fine for a price catalog, but the sourcing is opaque.
I need industrial metals beyond copper (aluminum, nickel, zinc). Which should I use?
metals-api.com. We ship gold, silver, and copper (copper as copper futures settlement only). If your product also needs aluminum, zinc, or other industrial metals on the same key, metals-api is the right choice.
Which has more currencies?
metals-api.com lists 170+ direct currency pairs. goldprice.dev serves gold spot in 31 currencies on every tier — realtime USD spot × live FX from exchangerate.dev, with ECB daily reference rates as fallback — auditable, published rates rather than proprietary pair tables.
Which is better for AI agents?
goldprice.dev by a wide margin. We ship a native Model Context Protocol server with eight tools on every plan including Free. metals-api has no MCP offering. Our responses are unit-annotated, staleness-flagged, and symbol-canonical — an LLM can reason about them without a post-processing layer.
Does metals-api tell me what gold actually costs to buy?
No. goldprice.dev's Physical tier ($10+) covers live dealer sell and buyback quotes with premium-over-spot across 12 countries, the real price at the counter rather than a blended spot number. metals-api trades that depth for breadth across every metal; it doesn't ship a per-country dealer feed.