Four cuts of the same verified dataset: cost, entry point, custody, and the numbers no chart in this category prints. Ten companies, one row each, no write-ups. If you want the argument behind the ordering, that lives in our 2026 rankings. This page is the reference sheet you check against a quote.
Advertising disclosure: some links on this page are partner links marked sponsored. Compensation never changes a figure in these tables or an editorial score.
| COMPANY | SCORE | MIN. INVEST | SETUP FEE | ANNUAL FEE | STORAGE | BUYBACK | BEST FOR | VISIT |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Birch Gold Group #1 PICK | 9.8/10 | ~$10,000 | $50 | ~$265 flat* | Delaware, Brink's, IDS, Texas | Repurchases, free metals promo | Best overall | Visit → |
| Augusta Precious Metals | 9.6/10 | ~$50,000 | Not published | Up to 10 yrs waived* | Delaware Depository, segregated | Never-declined record | Education & HNW | Visit → |
| Goldco | 9.4/10 | ~$25,000 | Not published | Flat annual* | Delaware Depository or Brink's | Guarantee, best price after 3 yrs | Buyback & promos | Visit → |
| American Hartford Gold | 9.2/10 | ~$10,000 | Not published | ~$180 all-in | Delaware Depository or Brink's | No liquidation fee | Low fees / low min | Visit → |
| Noble Gold Investments | 8.8/10 | ~$20,000 | Not published | Flat annual* | Texas (IDS) or Delaware | Program, ask the spread | Diverse storage | Visit → |
| American Bullion | 8.6/10 | ~$10,000 | Not published | $0 first year* | Assigned, no vault choice | Program, not a price guarantee | First-time buyers | Visit → |
| Advantage Gold | 8.5/10 | ~$25,000 | Not published | Flat annual* | Confirm vault at setup | Program, not a price guarantee | Customer satisfaction | Visit → |
| Orion Metal Exchange | 8.4/10 | ~$5,000 | May be waived* | May be waived* | More than one depository | Program, no sell-back fee | Small balances | Visit → |
| Lear Capital | 8.2/10 | ~$10,000 | Not published | Flat-fee option* | Confirm vault at setup | Program, less documented | Track record | Visit → |
| Patriot Gold Group | 8.1/10 | ~$25,000 | Not published | No-fee-for-life* | Confirm vault at setup | Program, dealer-direct | Direct pricing | Visit → |
*Waivers and promotions apply to qualifying accounts and rollovers only. Minimums are set by each dealer, not the IRS, and are approximate. Scores are Gold IRA Consulting editorial ratings. Fees verified Jun 2026, confirm current pricing.
Year one is what companies advertise. Year two onward is what you live with, so that is the sort key. Rows with no dollar figure are neither cheap nor expensive: they are unpublished, which is its own finding.
| COMPANY | SETUP | YEAR ONE | YEAR TWO ONWARD | WAIVER CONDITION | SCHEDULE PUBLISHED? |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Patriot Gold Group | Not published | $0* | $0 while qualifying* | No-fee-for-life, qualifying accounts | No |
| Augusta Precious Metals | Not published | $0* | $0 up to yr 10* | Qualifying accounts, custodian and storage | Waiver terms only |
| American Bullion | Not published | $0* | Not published | Storage and custodian, first year | No |
| Orion Metal Exchange | May be waived* | May be waived* | May be waived* | Under certain balance thresholds | No |
| American Hartford Gold | Not published | ~$180 | ~$180 all-in | None advertised; no liquidation fee | All-in figure only |
| Birch Gold Group | $50 | $0 on $50k+ rollovers* | ~$265 flat | First year on qualifying $50k+ rollovers | Yes, full line by line |
| Goldco | Not published | Flat annual* | Flat annual* | Promotion is metal, not fees | No |
| Noble Gold Investments | Not published | Flat annual* | Flat annual* | None advertised | No |
| Advantage Gold | Not published | Flat annual* | Flat annual* | None advertised | No |
| Lear Capital | Not published | Flat-fee option* | Flat-fee option* | None advertised | No |
Birch Gold Group publishes $50 setup, $30 wire, $110 storage and insurance, $125 management. American Hartford Gold's ~$180 all-in includes roughly $75 management on accounts at or under $100,000. Fees verified Jun 2026, confirm current pricing.
The last column is the one to read first: it counts how many of the ten companies open up once you can fund that amount. Half the field is reachable at $10,000, and nine of ten at $25,000.
| MINIMUM | COMPANY | SCORE | BEST FOR | COMPANIES OPEN AT THIS LEVEL |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ~$5,000 | Orion Metal Exchange | 8.4 | Small balances | 1 of 10 |
| ~$10,000 | American Hartford Gold | 9.2 | Low fees / low min | 5 of 10 |
| ~$10,000 | Birch Gold Group | 9.0 | Fee transparency | 5 of 10 |
| ~$10,000 | American Bullion | 8.6 | First-time buyers | 5 of 10 |
| ~$10,000 | Lear Capital | 8.2 | Track record | 5 of 10 |
| ~$20,000 | Noble Gold Investments | 8.8 | Diverse storage | 6 of 10 |
| ~$25,000 | Goldco | 9.4 | Buyback & promos | 9 of 10 |
| ~$25,000 | Advantage Gold | 8.5 | Customer satisfaction | 9 of 10 |
| ~$25,000 | Patriot Gold Group | 8.1 | Direct pricing | 9 of 10 |
| ~$50,000 | Augusta Precious Metals | 9.6 | Best overall | 10 of 10 |
Dealer-set minimums, not an IRS rule. Some are quoted as ranges and can move with a promotion. For how these thresholds behave in practice, see our minimum investment guide.
Two columns here rarely appear anywhere: whether you get a say in which vault holds your metal, and whether the company will name its custodian before you sign. Both are answerable in one phone call, and the answers vary widely.
| COMPANY | DEPOSITORY OPTIONS | CHOICE OF VAULT | SEGREGATED / COMMINGLED | CUSTODIANS WE COULD NAME |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Augusta Precious Metals | Delaware Depository | No | Segregated offered | Not named publicly |
| Goldco | Delaware Depository, Brink's Global Services | Two networks | Both, ask which applies | Equity Trust, STRATA Trust |
| American Hartford Gold | Delaware Depository, Brink's Global Services | Two networks | Both, ask which applies | Equity Trust |
| Birch Gold Group | Delaware, Brink's, International Depository Services, Texas Precious Metals | Four named | Both, ask which applies | Equity Trust, STRATA Trust, GoldStar Trust |
| Noble Gold Investments | International Depository Services in Texas, Delaware, a Canadian option referenced | Widest on this chart | Both, confirm in writing | Not named publicly |
| American Bullion | Assigned IRS-approved depository | No | Both, ask which applies | Not named publicly |
| Advantage Gold | Assigned IRS-approved depository | Confirm at setup | Both, confirm in writing | Not named publicly |
| Orion Metal Exchange | More than one depository partner | Yes | Both, segregated costs more | Multiple, not named |
| Lear Capital | Assigned IRS-approved depository | Confirm at setup | Both, segregated costs more | Not named publicly |
| Patriot Gold Group | Assigned IRS-approved depository | Confirm at setup | Both, segregated costs more | Not named publicly |
Rate context, since the vaults bill separately from the dealer: Delaware Depository lists 8 basis points a year for commingled metal, minimum $95, and 16 basis points for segregated, minimum $190. Any chart quoting half a percent or more for depository storage is out by roughly an order of magnitude. Full breakdown in our storage and depository guide.
Every figure above is an administrative charge, and none of them is the largest sum you will part with. That one is the dealer's markup over the live spot price, paid once on day one, absent from every fee schedule because it is embedded in the price of the coins. The right-hand column converts a collectible-coin markup into years of the only fully published annual fee on this chart.
| ACCOUNT FUNDED | MARKUP, LOW-PREMIUM BULLION (5%) | MARKUP, PROOF COINS (30%) | THE 30% VERSION, IN YEARS OF A $265 ANNUAL FEE |
|---|---|---|---|
| $10,000 | $500 | $3,000 | 11 years |
| $25,000 | $1,250 | $7,500 | 28 years |
| $50,000 | $2,500 | $15,000 | 57 years |
| $100,000 | $5,000 | $30,000 | 113 years |
Illustrative percentages, not quotes. Ask any company here for two numbers in writing before funding: the price as a percentage over spot on the exact products offered, and today's buyback quote on those same products. The gap is your real round-trip cost, and no row substitutes for it. Our breakdown of the five gold IRA fees explains where each charge originates; the fee calculator models markup and annual cost together on your own balance.
Headings in this category are used loosely, and two rows that look identical often describe different promises.
The dealer's own funding threshold, not a legal one. The IRS sets no floor for an IRA. Several are quoted as ranges and soften during a promotion, so treat the figure as a guide and confirm it against your intended funding amount.
A one-time charge to open the self-directed account. Industry norm is roughly $50 to $80. "Not published" means the company quotes it on a call rather than printing it, which is not the same as it being zero.
Custodian administration plus depository storage and insurance, the two recurring bills. Both are charged by third parties, not by the dealer, which is why a dealer can waive them as a promotion without changing its own economics.
Two unrelated promises. The first cancels a single opening charge worth tens of dollars. The second cancels roughly a year of recurring cost worth low hundreds, then billing resumes at the standard rate in month thirteen.
Which depository holds the metal and whether you get a say. Segregated means your specific bars and coins are kept apart and returned to you; commingled pools identical bullion and costs less. Get the choice in writing.
Whether a company commits to repurchasing what it sold. Note that none of these is a promise about price. A never-declined record, a conditional guarantee, and a general willingness to buy are three different levels of commitment.
Our weighted editorial rating out of 10: fees and pricing transparency 30 percent, custody and storage 25 percent, service and buyback 25 percent, reputation 20 percent. The full method is on our ranking methodology page.
We could not verify a figure from company-published material as of June 2026. It is a statement about disclosure, not about cost. A company that quotes only on a call may still be competitively priced once you have the quote.
Because most charts are quoting different things and labelling them identically. One chart shows a promotional first-year figure, another shows the standing schedule, a third shows what a single reader was quoted at one balance level. Only two of the ten companies here put a number in public at all, so every other figure in circulation traces back to a sales call. When two charts disagree, check which year each one is describing, what account size it assumes, and whether storage is bundled into the number or billed separately by the depository.
Birch Gold Group is the only company on this chart that publishes the full line-by-line schedule up front: $50 setup, a $30 wire, $110 storage and insurance, and $125 management, with the first year waived on qualifying $50,000-plus rollovers. American Hartford Gold publishes an all-in figure of roughly $180 a year, about $75 of which is management on accounts under $100,000, but not the component breakdown. The other eight quote on request. Fees verified Jun 2026, confirm current pricing.
No, and the chart shows why. Minimums and annual costs move independently. Orion Metal Exchange sets the lowest entry point at roughly $5,000, while Augusta Precious Metals sits at roughly $50,000 and waives custodian and storage fees for up to ten years on qualifying accounts, which makes the higher-minimum account the cheaper one to hold. Flat annual fees also weigh far more heavily on a small balance: $265 is about 5 percent of a $5,000 account and about 0.5 percent of a $50,000 one.
Four different promises appear in the waiver column and they are not equivalent. "No setup fee" removes a one-time charge of roughly $50 to $80. "First year waived" removes roughly one year of custodian and storage cost, then normal billing resumes. A multi-year waiver, such as the one Augusta Precious Metals offers on qualifying accounts, removes up to ten years of it. "No-fee-for-life", which Patriot Gold Group advertises on qualifying accounts, is open-ended but conditional. For any of them, ask in writing what funding level qualifies, whether the waiver survives if the balance later falls, and whether it covers the custodian, the depository, or both.
Treat anything older than about six months as a starting point rather than a quote. Promotions turn over fastest, sometimes within a quarter. Minimums and custodian pairings shift more slowly but still change. Depository rate cards move rarely. The figures on this page were verified in June 2026 and the page was last updated on July 28, 2026. The competing charts ranking for this term include one still advertising a 2023 guide, which is exactly the failure mode to watch for: check the verification date before you trust any row.
Company figures in all four tables are drawn from our verified provider dataset and match the scored write-ups on our 2026 rankings row for row. Depository rate context: published custodian depository schedules, verified July 2026. Regulatory framework: Internal Revenue Code section 408(m)(3) on permitted IRA bullion and the qualified-trustee requirement, with IRS Publication 590-A and 590-B on contributions and distributions. Fees verified Jun 2026; promotions and schedules change without notice, so confirm current pricing directly with each company before funding an account. Educational content, not financial advice.
Fees, minimums and storage for our top-rated companies, plus the questions to put in writing before you fund. No cost, no obligation.