Gold IRA fee & rollover calculator.

How this calculator works

Both tools above run entirely inside your browser. Nothing you type is stored, transmitted, or attached to an email address, and there is no sign-up gate in front of the result. Change any field and every number redraws instantly. Here is what each input does and how to read what comes back.

Calculator 1: total cost of ownership

Investment amount is the dollar value you plan to move into the account and convert into metal. Use the amount you expect to actually fund on day one, not the combined balance of every retirement account you hold.

Dealer markup over spot is the premium, expressed as a percentage, that a precious-metals dealer adds to the live spot price when you buy. This is the field most people leave alone and the one that matters most. Drag it and watch the total move further than any other input on the page.

One-time setup fee is the single charge to open a self-directed IRA and establish it with a qualified custodian. Annual custodian / admin fee is the flat yearly charge for recordkeeping, reporting, and compliance. Annual storage + insurance is what an IRS-approved depository charges to vault and insure the metal on your behalf.

Years held is your planned holding period. It multiplies the two annual fees. It does not touch the markup, which is paid once at purchase and never again.

On the dark panel, the first three rows separate what you pay upfront from what accrues over time. Dealer markup cost and setup fee land on day one; custodian plus storage is the two annual fees multiplied by your holding period. Those three lines add to total cost of ownership, the headline figure. Beneath it, as % of your investment restates that total against the amount you funded, and effective annual cost drag spreads it evenly across the years held so you can compare it to an expense ratio you already understand. The final two rows price the same amount over the same period at a 0.25% gold ETF and show the difference, purely as a reference point.

Calculator 2: rollover penalty checker

The second tool is a rules checker rather than a math engine. Tell it where the money sits now, how you intend to move it, and which side of 59 and a half you are on. It returns the constraints that apply to that specific combination: whether the account type can usually be moved at all, whether the method you picked triggers withholding, and which deadline you are on the clock for. Select the indirect route and a fourth field appears asking how many days ago you received the funds, because that single number decides whether you are still inside the 60-day window or already past it. The badge above the result summarizes the outcome as no tax or penalty, check carefully, or penalty risk.

What this calculator assumes, stated openly

Every calculator is a set of assumptions wearing a nice interface. Most tool pages never print theirs. Here are ours, so you can judge how much weight the output deserves before you act on it.

• Fees are flat, not a percentage of assets. The model charges the same custodian and storage dollars whether you fund $20,000 or $200,000, which is how most reputable providers price. If a company quotes a percentage-of-assets fee instead, this tool will understate your cost as the balance grows.
• Fees do not rise over the holding period. Real schedules drift upward. Treat a long holding period as a floor rather than a forecast.
• The markup is paid once, on the full amount. The model assumes you convert the entire investment to metal in a single purchase at the premium you set on the slider.
• The starting figures are typical, not quoted to you. The defaults ($50 setup, $100 custodian, $150 storage, 5% markup, 10 years) sit inside the ranges documented on our gold IRA fees breakdown, where setup commonly runs $50 to $80, custodian $75 to $125 a year, storage and insurance $100 to $150 a year, and bullion markups 3% to 8%. Those figures were verified Jun 2026. Replace every one of them with the numbers on your own written quote.
• The ETF row applies a 0.25% annual expense ratio to your starting amount for the years held. It is a yardstick for cost only. A gold IRA holds physical metal titled to your account; a fund does not, and the two are not interchangeable.

What it deliberately does not model

Leaving things out is a choice too, and these omissions matter at least as much as the assumptions above.

• The price of gold. There is no return assumption anywhere in the tool. It measures cost, not performance, and it will never tell you whether the investment was worth making.
• The sell-side spread. The markup slider prices only the buy. What a dealer pays when you liquidate is a second, separate cost, explained in the next section.
• Wire and transaction fees. Outbound wires typically run $25 to $40 each, and some custodians add a small per-trade charge. Over a decade these are minor, but they are real.
• Fee waivers and promotions. Several providers waive the first year, or several years, of custodian and storage fees on qualifying rollovers. If yours does, lower the annual figures accordingly.
• Taxes. The cost tool assumes the money is already inside a retirement account and stays there. Distributions, required minimum distributions, and the tax consequences of taking metal out are outside its scope.
• Additional contributions. The model prices one funding event, not a balance you keep adding to year after year.
• Inflation. Every figure is in today's dollars, undiscounted.

A worked example: $50,000 held for 10 years

Numbers land better than descriptions. Below is the calculator's default scenario carried all the way through: a $50,000 rollover converted to low-premium bullion at a 5% dealer markup and held for 10 years, with a $50 setup fee, a $100 annual custodian fee, and $150 a year for storage and insurance. Every figure sits inside the published ranges above.

LINE ITEM	HOW IT IS CALCULATED	10-YEAR COST
Dealer markup over spot (5%)	$50,000 at 5%, paid once at purchase	$2,500
One-time setup fee	Charged once at account opening	$50
Custodian + admin ($100/yr)	$100 multiplied by 10 years	$1,000
Storage + insurance ($150/yr)	$150 multiplied by 10 years	$1,500
Total cost of ownership	Upfront costs plus 10 years of annual fees	$5,050
As % of the amount funded	$5,050 divided by $50,000	10.10%
Effective annual cost drag	10.10% spread over 10 years	1.01%
Reference: 0.25% gold ETF	$50,000 at 0.25% a year for 10 years	$1,250
Difference against that reference	$5,050 less $1,250	+$3,800

Two things are worth noticing. First, the single largest line is the markup, and it is paid before the account has done anything at all. Second, the annual fees are genuinely modest in percentage terms at this balance: $250 a year against $50,000 is half of one percent, and because the fee is flat it shrinks further as the balance grows.

Now change one input. Leave everything else alone and move the markup slider from 5% to 30%, the kind of premium a proof or collectible coin can carry. The markup line jumps from $2,500 to $15,000, total cost of ownership goes from $5,050 to $17,550, and the annual drag rises from 1.01% to 3.51%. One decision, made in a single phone call, costs $12,500 more than every custodian and storage fee you will pay in a decade. That is the entire argument for running this page before you speak to a salesperson rather than after.

The cost nobody prints: dealer markup over spot

Every gold IRA company publishes a fee schedule. Almost none of them publish the number that actually decides your cost. When you buy metal, the dealer sells it above the live spot price, and that premium is the markup. It is not itemized as a fee because, strictly speaking, it is not one: it is the price. It leaves your account exactly the way a fee does, and it is usually larger than a decade of everything else combined.

Buy premium plus sell spread is your real round trip

The markup slider prices only half of the transaction. There is a second half. When you eventually sell, a dealer buys your metal back below spot, and the gap between those two prices is the rest of your cost. Think of it as a round trip: you pay a premium going in and accept a discount coming out, and the sum of the two is what owning the metal actually cost you, regardless of where the gold price went in between.

On common bullion, meaning American Gold Eagles, Maple Leafs, and standard approved bars, that round trip is narrow. Buy premiums typically run 3% to 8%, and the buyback on liquid bullion sits close to spot, so the total spread stays manageable. On proof and numismatic coins the picture inverts. A collectible sold to you at a 20% to 40% premium is frequently bought back near its melt value, which means the entire premium evaporates the moment you sell. The gold price can rise and you can still be behind, because you started the trade a third of the way down. This is why the markup decision outranks every other cost choice you will make, and why it is the input worth the most attention on the calculator above.

How to make a dealer tell you the number

The premium is knowable. It is simply not volunteered. Ask these four questions, in this order, before you fund anything.

• "What is your premium over spot, as a percentage, on the exact products you are recommending to me?" A percentage, not a dollar total, and on the specific items, not the catalog average.
• "What is that same percentage on standard bullion instead?" The gap between the two answers is what the recommendation is costing you.
• "If I sold this back to you today, what would you pay me, and what percentage of spot is that?" This is the exit price, and it is the question that separates a bullion conversation from a collectibles pitch.
• "Is there a liquidation fee on top of that?" Some providers charge one and some explicitly do not, so it is worth confirming in the same call.

Get the answers in writing, then put the buy premium into the calculator and re-read the total. If a dealer will not quote a premium, or reframes the question as being about a coin's rarity rather than its price, that is your answer. Our full gold IRA fees breakdown covers how markups compare across providers alongside every other charge, including buyback spreads.

How to actually use the result

A number on a screen is not a decision. Here is what to do with the one you just produced.

Read the drag, not the total

Total cost of ownership is the attention-grabbing figure, but effective annual cost drag is the one you can compare to anything else you own. Around 1% a year is in the same neighborhood as plenty of actively managed funds. Around 3% is a serious headwind the metal has to overcome before you are ahead of where you started. If your result sits meaningfully above 2% a year, go back and find out which input is responsible. It is almost always the markup.

Check whether your balance carries the flat fees

Because custodian and storage fees are flat, they weigh hardest on small accounts. The same $250 a year is 0.5% of a $50,000 balance and 2.5% of a $10,000 one. Run your real number rather than the default. If the annual fees alone consume more than about 1% of the balance every year, the honest answer may be that the account is too small for this structure right now.

Use it as a negotiation script

Bring the output into the conversation. Ask a provider to beat the specific line items, and be direct that you are comparing all-in cost rather than the headline annual fee. Then run the tool again with their written quote in front of you and see whether the total actually moved, or whether a waived setup fee was quietly offset by a wider premium.

Then check the funding side

Cost is only half the question. Use the rollover checker above to confirm your money can move without tax or penalty, and read the gold IRA rollover guide before you initiate anything. When you are ready to compare companies on verified numbers, our 2026 rankings score each provider on fee transparency alongside custody, service, and reputation.