How to Calculate Pip Value: Forex, JPY Pairs, Gold and Indices

Short answer: pip value = pip size × contract size × lots, converted into your account currency. That one formula covers every instrument. For a USD account: EURUSD pays $10 per pip per standard lot (0.0001 × 100,000), USDJPY pays 1,000 yen per pip — about $6.67 at 150.00 — and gold pays $10 per 0.10 move per 100-oz lot. Indices are the exception that needs your broker's contract spec. The worked examples below cover each case, and the free pip value calculator does the arithmetic live for 60+ instruments.

The formula, once

A pip is the standard price increment of an instrument: 0.0001 for most forex pairs, 0.01 for JPY pairs. A contract (1.0 lot) is 100,000 units of the base currency in forex. So:

pip value = pip size × contract size × lots ÷ (quote currency → account currency rate)

The division at the end is the step people forget — it is only needed when the pair's quote currency (the second one) is not your account currency.

Worked examples (USD account, 1.00 lot)

Scale linearly for smaller sizes: a mini lot (0.10) is one-tenth of every number above, a micro lot (0.01) one-hundredth — so EURUSD is $1.00 and $0.10 per pip respectively.

Gold: check the convention before trusting any number

Gold causes more sizing accidents than every forex pair combined, because "one pip" is not standardised. Some platforms and calculators treat a pip as a 0.10 move ($10/lot), others count every 0.01 ($1/lot), and brokers occasionally use 1-oz or 10-oz contracts instead of 100 oz. The number that never lies is in your terminal: right-click the symbol → Specification → tick size and tick value. Pip value = tick value × (pip size ÷ tick size).

Indices: points, not pips — and no universal contract

"Indices pip calculator" is really a search for point value. An index CFD moves in whole points and its value per point is whatever contract size your broker chose for 1.0 lot — commonly $1 per point, but $0.10 and $10 exist side by side across brokers for the same US30. Two consequences: never copy a position size for indices from someone at another broker, and never assume a "100-point stop" risks the same dollars across two accounts. The calculator handles the common index contracts; the symbol specification settles arguments.

Pip difference: turning two prices into pips (and money)

pip difference = (price A − price B) ÷ pip size

• EURUSD 1.08500 → 1.08850: 0.00350 ÷ 0.0001 = 35 pips → 35 × $10 = $350 per standard lot.
• USDJPY 150.00 → 150.75: 0.75 ÷ 0.01 = 75 pips → 75 × $6.67 ≈ $500 per lot.
• Gold 2,315.00 → 2,319.50: 4.50 ÷ 0.10 = 45 pips → $450 per lot.

On 5-digit brokers the fifth decimal is a point (a tenth of a pip) — a move from 1.08500 to 1.08505 is half a pip, not five.

Why this matters more than it looks

Pip value is the middle term of every risk calculation: risk = stop distance (pips) × pip value × lots. Get it wrong on gold or an index and a "1% risk" trade can quietly be a 10% trade. Position sizing from the stop distance is covered in the lot size guide, drawdown budgeting for funded accounts in prop-firm drawdown rules — and if you want the arithmetic done for you on every trade, that is exactly what the free lot size and pip value calculators are for — or the MT5 trade manager EA, which reads the per-point value off the symbol itself and never has to be told what a pip is worth.