Silver vs gold: key numbers
silver as a percentage of gold. 100% means silver has caught up. Data as of .
| Metric | Now | 1 year ago | Peak | Data since |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Market cap | 10.2% | 9.8% | 25.1% Apr 25, 2011 | Aug 2000 |
A race run on the gold/silver ratio
Both metals are valued the same way, price times a fixed quantity, so this race is the gold/silver ratio in another form: the number of ounces of silver one ounce of gold buys. With the quantities used here, silver would flip gold if that ratio fell to about 8 to 1. Its lowest close since 2000 was 32 to 1, in April 2011.
Highs in 2011 and 2026
Silver came closest in the spring of 2011, when it traded near $50 an ounce. On April 25, 2011, at $47.15 against gold's $1,509, its market cap was 25.1% of gold's. The low came on March 18, 2020, in the market crash at the start of the pandemic, when an ounce of gold bought 126 ounces of silver and silver fell to 6.4% of gold. A rally that took silver above $100 lifted it to 18.2% of gold on January 26, 2026, its highest reading since 2011.
Why silver looks bigger here than it is
Gold is almost never used up, so all the gold ever mined is a fair measure of the gold that exists. Silver is different. Much of it has gone into electronics, solar panels, photographic film and other uses that cannot be recovered. Counting only bars, coins, jewelry and silverware would give silver a much smaller market cap than the one shown here, so treat this tracker as silver's best case. Gold's own race with bitcoin is on Bitcoin vs gold, which prices gold with PAX Gold rather than futures.
How we value both metals. Prices are daily closes of the front-month COMEX futures, GC=F for gold and SI=F for silver, which track spot prices closely. Gold's quantity is the World Gold Council's 216,265 tonnes. Silver's is a widely cited estimate of all silver ever mined, about 1.74 million tonnes. Both are held fixed for the whole series.
Silver vs gold flip history
Silver has never closed above gold in this data, which begins in Aug 2000.
Frequently asked questions
Has silver flipped gold?
No. As of November 10, 2026, silver's market cap is 10.2% of gold's, so silver would need to grow 9.8× relative to gold to flip it. The closest it has come in this data was 25.1% on April 25, 2011.
What is the silver/gold market cap ratio today?
Silver's market cap is 10.2% of gold's as of November 10, 2026. A year earlier, on November 10, 2025, it was 9.8%. Over the past 12 months it ranged from 9.8% to 18.2%.
How close has silver come to flipping gold?
The highest reading in this data is 25.1%, on April 25, 2011. Silver has never closed above gold in this data, which begins in Aug 2000.
How much would silver need to rise to flip gold?
If gold's market cap stayed where it is, silver's market cap would need to grow 9.8× (about +880%) to reach parity. With both stocks held fixed, the race comes down to the gold/silver price ratio: silver flips gold when an ounce of gold buys about 8 ounces of silver. On Nov 10, 2026, it bought 79.
Where does this data come from?
Prices are daily closes of the front-month COMEX gold and silver futures (GC=F and SI=F) from Yahoo Finance. Gold's market cap is its price times the World Gold Council's estimate of all gold ever mined, 216,265 tonnes at the end of 2024; silver's is its price times a widely cited estimate of all silver ever mined, about 1.74 million tonnes. Both quantities are held fixed. Each chart plots silver as a percentage of gold, so 100% is parity. The data refreshes daily shortly after 00:00 UTC; the raw series is silver-gold.json.