Strota Research

Gram gold plans beat rupee plans in 108 of 131 months. Thank gold's rally, not the plan

By Strota Newsroom · 2026-10-26 · How Strota reports

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We ran every monthly start since 2015 through both kinds of jeweller gold plan. Counting grams each month usually gave more gold, but only because gold kept climbing.

If you put ₹5,000 a month into a jeweller's gold plan, the rule for pricing your gold matters. We tested the two common rules against each other. Over the past decade, the plan that turns each payment into grams usually handed the saver more gold. On average, the gap came to ₹4,882 worth of gold on a full plan. That sounds like a clear winner. It is not. The gram rule won mostly because gold went up in 111 of the 131 periods we checked. When gold slipped, the rupee rule came out on top.

What is the difference between a rupee plan and a gram plan?

In a rupee plan, you save rupees every month. The jeweller prices your gold only on the day you finally buy. Tanishq's Golden Harvest works this way. In a gram plan, each monthly payment is turned into grams straight away. Some plans use that day's gold rate. Others use the average of all your payment-day rates. Many South Indian schemes, and Malabar's Golden Glitz, follow this style. So the real question is simple. Do you want your savings fixed in rupees until the purchase, or moving with gold every month?

Which gold plan gave more gold since 2015?

The gram plan was ahead in 108 of 131 starting months. The average-rate version gave more gold in 107 of 131 starts, almost the same. The typical lead for the day-rate version was ₹3,406 worth of gold.

The best result is striking. A gram plan started in March 2025 finished ₹26,927 ahead of the rupee plan. That was during gold's steep climb, when early grams were bought far cheaper than the final price.

Look at the years. Plans started in 2024 had an average gram-plan lead of ₹11,414. For 2025 starts it was ₹12,298. Those were the years of gold's sharp run.

What happens to a gram plan when gold falls?

Here is the hidden bet. A gram plan locks in each month's price. If gold rises after you pay, you win. If gold drops, you are stuck with grams bought at higher rates. Buying a little each month means paying earlier prices, and that only helps when later prices are higher.

Across our test, the price of gold climbed during 111 of the 131 plans. The gram rule led in 102 of those. In the 20 plans where gold fell or went nowhere, the rupee rule led in 14.

The worst case for the gram rule came from a February 2016 start. The rupee plan finished ₹4,749 ahead that time. Plans started across 2016 and 2020 both show the gram rule behind on average.

Think of a family saving for a daughter's wedding jewellery. A rupee plan keeps their money in rupees, so its value does not move with gold while they save. It cannot shrink if gold slides before the wedding. A gram plan, by contrast, lets their savings rise and fall with gold the whole way through. Neither is a free gift. The gram plan's past lead is a reward for carrying gold-price risk during a decade when gold mostly went up.

How we checked: we took every first-of-the-month start from January 2015 to November 2025, which gives 131 plans. Each one pays ₹5,000 a month for 11 months and buys on day 330. We compared the gold each rule would give, valued at the final day's price. We left out every plan's discount or bonus, so only the pricing rule differs.

The limits are real. Gold rose in most of these windows, so the result largely reflects one long rally. The 131 windows overlap a lot, so there are far fewer truly separate cases than the count suggests. We used the international gold price in rupees, without import duty, GST or any jeweller's own rate. And past gold moves tell you nothing certain about the next year.

Frequently asked questions

Is a gram gold plan better than a rupee gold plan?

Since 2015, a gram plan gave more gold in 108 of 131 starting months. But that mostly happened because gold kept rising. When gold fell, the rupee plan usually came out ahead.

What is a rupee plan in a jeweller gold scheme?

You save a fixed rupee amount each month, and the jeweller prices your gold only on the day you buy. Your savings stay in rupees until then, so they do not fall if gold falls.

Does a gram gold plan lose money if gold prices drop?

It can give you less gold than a rupee plan would. In our test, the worst case was a February 2016 start, where the rupee plan finished ₹4,749 ahead.

Sources and method

This note is based on Strota's own backtest research. Historical results are not forecasts or investment advice; see the editorial standards for methodology and limitations.