How Silver Jewellery Is Priced in India: Weight, Making Charges & What You Actually Pay
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If you have ever searched something like 100 gram silver payal price today or 1 gram silver price for men's bali, you will have noticed the answers are all over the place. That is because the silver rate is only one part of what you pay — and often not the largest part.
Here is how the number on the tag is actually built.
1. The silver rate
Silver is a traded commodity, so its rate moves daily. Jewellers quote it per gram or per kilogram, and the rate you see quoted in the market is usually for fine silver (99.9% pure).
Jewellery is almost never made from fine silver, because pure silver is too soft to hold a shape. 925 sterling silver is 92.5% silver with 7.5% other metal (usually copper) added for strength. That alloy is the international standard for jewellery, and it is what "925" and "sterling" both mean.
2. Weight — the part most people underestimate
Weight is the single biggest driver of price, and it is why two pieces that look similar can differ enormously in cost. A hollow, lightweight anklet and a solid one can look identical in a photograph and differ threefold in silver content.
This is the honest answer to "why is this payal ₹3,000 and that one ₹16,000": it is usually not the design. It is grams.
3. Making charges
Making charges cover the labour of turning raw silver into a finished piece — casting, soldering, stone setting, polishing, oxidising. They are quoted either as a flat amount or as a percentage of the metal value.
Intricate work costs more to make, and legitimately so. A plain band and a filigree kada with set stones are not the same job. What you should watch for is a percentage making charge applied to a heavy piece, where the labour did not actually scale with the weight.
4. Wastage
Some sellers add a "wastage" percentage on top, notionally covering metal lost during manufacture. In modern production, genuine loss is small and most of it is recovered and reused. A high wastage figure is worth questioning.
5. GST
GST is charged on jewellery in India and is added at the end. It should appear as a separate line, not be folded silently into the quoted price.
Putting it together
The structure is roughly:
(Weight in grams × rate per gram for 925 silver) + making charges + any wastage + GST = final price
Two questions get you most of the way to knowing whether a price is fair:
- What does it weigh? If a seller cannot or will not tell you the weight, that is the answer to your question.
- What are the making charges, separately from the metal? A seller confident in their pricing will break it out.
Why fixed-price silver is often simpler
Most online silver jewellery, ours included, is sold at a fixed price per piece rather than recalculated against the daily rate. That trades a little rate sensitivity for a lot of clarity — you see one number, it includes the making, and it does not change between adding to cart and checking out.
If you are shopping to a budget rather than to a weight, browse by price: under ₹999, under ₹1,499, under ₹2,999 or above ₹4,999 for the heavier pieces.
Frequently asked questions
Is 925 silver worth less than pure silver? Per gram, slightly — it is 92.5% silver rather than 99.9%. But pure silver cannot hold a jewellery shape, so for anything you intend to wear, 925 is the correct material rather than a compromise.
Why is branded silver more expensive for the same weight? Finishing, quality control, hallmarking, packaging and returns handling all sit in the making charge. Whether that is worth it is a judgement call, but it is not nothing.
Does silver jewellery hold resale value? The metal does; the making charges do not. Buy silver because you want to wear it, not as an investment.
How do I know I am actually getting 925? Look for the 925 hallmark and an authenticity card, and read how to identify real 925 sterling silver for the checks you can do yourself.
Silver or gold for the same budget? Silver buys you far more size and design for the money. See 925 silver vs gold.
