Where to Buy Gold Bullion in 2026

We’re only a month and a bit into 2026, but it’s already been a big year for gold. The yellow metal is up more than 15 percent in annual history, and in January it passed the $5,000 an ounce mark for the first time. It fell more than 10 percent from that point in early February before rebounding in the middle of the month.

For investors, there are some pressing questions about gold’s recent rally and subsequent volatility: Is there still room to run, how high can the price go, and where and how should you buy gold if you’re interested?

Below, we look at the reasons for the $5,000-plus, some price targets for the end of 2026, and a couple of brokers reviewed by NerdWallet that will send you billions of physical gold.

Gold prices have risen in 2026 for three main reasons: geopolitical uncertainty, a falling dollar, and major institutions buying gold to hedge against these two factors.

If you’ve opened a newspaper recently, you probably have some awareness of the geopolitical uncertainty in question. U.S. tariff threats, along with its military intervention in Venezuela and saber-rattling in Greenland and the Middle East, have created a sense that the world order—and America’s role in it—is rapidly changing.

Not everyone has been thrilled with recent US actions, particularly with regard to tariffs. This discontent has contributed to a “selling America” ​​trade, in which international investors have dumped dollar-linked assets and sought alternatives (including gold).

It has depreciated the dollar by more than 10 percent over the past year against a basket of foreign currencies. The fall of the dollar has further justified the value of gold in dollars, as gold has a long track record of holding its value against currency declines.

Another news story fueling uncertainty about the U.S. economy, weakness in the dollar, and strong demand for gold in January was the prospect of another U.S. government shutdown. Congress reached a last-minute deal Providing financial assistance to the government.

Against this backdrop, institutional investors have flocked to gold as a hedge against uncertainty. These institutions include countries’ central banks, hedge funds, wealthy individuals and families, and some new types of financial institutions, including Stablecoin Issuers such as teachers.

Gold has already hovered above and below the $5,000 mark several times this year, and its price volatility is likely to continue for the foreseeable future. Many analysts at the big banks are optimistic about where it can go from here.

Seven of the eight “bulge bracket” banks – a grouping of the most dominant banks with US operations, including Deutsche Bank, Morgan Stanley, UBS, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, Citi, Bank of America and Barclays – recently updated their gold price forecasts for the end of 2026.

We’ve compiled the estimates below by recency, according to their highest (“bell case”) estimates.

The data is current as of February 2, 2026, and is intended for informational purposes only, not for commercial purposes.

What if you want to buy gold bullion – physical gold you can hold in your hands – through an online investment platform? NerdWallet recently wrapped up our broker review updates for 2026, and two of the brokers we review offer this capability.

Gold bullion offers: Mukshali offers gold bars and various coins in increments ranging from 1 ounce to 1 kg. The minimum order size is $1,000, and the minimum initial investment is $2,500 for non-current accounts. Depending on the volume, the buy side runs from 0.99% to 2.90%, and the sell side from 0.75% to 2.00%. FidelityTrade (Fidelity’s currently operating billion partner) can also store on your behalf for an annual fee of between 0.25% and 1.5% of your account value, depending on the type of storage you want.

Other things to know about fidelity: Over the years, Fidelity has taken many Nerd Vault wins Best Awards for PlatformsIncluding the best online broker for beginners and the best investing app. That’s because it marries strong customer service with easy-to-use, easy-to-use, investment choices and extremely low fees.

But like any business, it’s not perfect: If you want to trade the old-fashioned way over the phone with a human broker, you’ll find that Fidelity’s fees are higher for broker-assisted trades. Find out more in our Full honest review.

Gold bullion offers: Interactive brokers offer gold bars and coins in increments between 1 ounce and 1 kg for commissions ranging from 0.007% to 0.015%, depending on volume.

If you do not take physical delivery of your bullion, the minimum commission per trade is $2.00, and the monthly storage fee is $0.15 per ounce.

Other things to know about Interactive Brokers: Interactive Brokers consistently wins NerdWallet’s annual Best Online Broker for Advanced Traders award, due to its many investment choices, top-of-the-line research selection and trading toolkit, and low margin rates.

However, its apps and website are really geared towards experienced investors, and can be intimidating for beginners to navigate. You can read more in our Full Interactive Brokers Review.

It may sound ridiculous, but it’s true. There are also a number of large retailers that will sell you gold bullion, including for delivery through their websites. These aren’t brokers, per se, but we thought we’d include them here under the umbrella of reputable institutions you can buy physical gold from.

• Walmart Offers gold bars and coins on their website in increments between 1 gram and 1 kg (including a variety of 1 ounce and fractional ounce items). There’s free shipping, and no out-of-pocket fees, and reviewers say shipping is fast and comes in discrete packaging, which is a plus from a security perspective. However, many commodity prices appear higher than the spot price of an equivalent amount of gold on an exchange. For example, the first 1 ounce gold bar listed on Walmart’s gold bullion page is selling for 5,519.99 at the time of writing, while the spot price of gold is 5,103.70.
  

• Costco Offers 1 ounce gold bars to members through its website. Price as per price includes insurance shipping which requires required signature after delivery. But like Walmart, this price (at the time of writing, $5,249.99) is a significant markup from the gold replacement price, probably more than the cost of insured shipping.

Owning gold bullion may appeal to some investors because it provides a kind of “apocalypse insurance.” If something terrible has happened in your area – such as war, a severe natural disaster, or some kind of political or economic disaster that severely affected access to banking and financial markets – many investments, such as stocks and bonds, may not be worth much.

Although these things represent the legal ownership of companies or income streams, they Physically A computer server consists of just pieces of paper, or one more zero. In the absence of a functional legal system to enforce their rights over the things they represent, they are only Pieces of paper or numbers on a computer.

Physical sleep is different. Even in a doomsday scenario, gold is still gold. It is rare, it looks beautiful, it is intrinsically valuable, And you can hold it in your hands. In families that have experienced severe hardship—such as having to flee their homeland because of war, instability, or persecution—there is often a tradition of leaving precious metal heirlooms as insurance against future destruction.

Talk to anyone who has lived through such a crisis and they will probably tell you that even when things are at their most dire, physical gold still has value, and can still be exchanged for essentials like food and shelter, or passage to a safe place.

With all of this, there’s a catch: While we wait for the apocalypse, physical gold comes with some problems that most “paper” investments like stocks, bonds, and ETFs don’t.

For example, it has to be kept safe and in good condition. This creates costs (eg, safe deposit box fees, cleaning costs) that can eat into your refund. And if you want to reduce your physical gold investment First apocalypse, you’ll have to find a reputable buyer and physically transport or ship your gold to them.

One way to reduce these problems is to pay your broker to deliver the gold on your behalf, and store it – both fiduciary and interactive brokers offer this service. But it still costs money, and that reduces the “apocalypse insurance” appeal of owning physical gold. At this point, you may want to consider another, simpler way to gain investment exposure to gold.

Gold ETFS: Gold ETFs hold bullion on behalf of their shareholders, which makes it essentially the same as buying and storing bullion through one of the aforementioned brokers (although the expense ratio on gold ETFs is lower than the storage fees from the aforementioned brokers, and you can invest in smaller amounts). If gold interests you, see our List of Best ETF Platforms

Gold Stocks: Gold stocks are shares of gold mining companies. Their prices move more or less in line with the price of gold, although other variables, such as operating costs, can also affect them. Sometimes they enhance the metal itself, and other times they make it less efficient. Our roundup of the best online brokers for stock trading If you’re interested in gold stocks, this is a good place to start your search.