Gold or silver: how they differ as investments

Gold and silver differ mainly in how much their prices swing. SEBI rates silver funds Very High on its risk scale and gold funds High, one level apart. Silver's fund rules are also much newer, dating from November 2021.

You can hold either metal through funds. Koshex offers gold and silver funds as regular plans, bought through an AMFI-registered distributor, which helps you buy and manage funds (Koshex holds ARN-154632). The sections below show what changes between the two metals, with SEBI's rules and RBI's dated figures.

How are gold and silver different as investments?

Both are metals whose funds follow the domestic price, but silver's price has swung more, so SEBI rates silver funds a level riskier.

An ETF is a fund whose units trade on the stock exchange like a share. A fund of funds holds units of another fund. The riskometer is the label SEBI makes every fund show, on six levels from Low to Very High. Volatility is how much a price swings. A yearly average is the average price over a financial year.

Sources: SEBI's mutual fund master circular, two fund houses' documents, and RBI's Handbook of Statistics on the Indian Economy (Table 35, Mumbai yearly averages). The figures are past prices, not forecasts.

Is silver riskier than gold?

By SEBI's measure, yes. SEBI scores each metal by its volatility over the last 15 years. Silver swings more, so silver funds show Very High and gold funds High.

On 29 September 2026 every listed silver fund read Very High, and most listed gold funds read High.

One silver ETF's own offer document gives a reason for the gap. Silver is used in industry as well as held as savings. That document names swings in industrial demand among the reasons its price moves more than gold's. It is one fund's account, not a rule.

The swings show up in RBI's yearly averages. Silver averaged ₹57,602.30 a kilogram in 2012-13 and ₹36,318.10 in 2015-16. So ₹50,000 of silver at the 2012-13 yearly average was worth about ₹31,525 at the 2015-16 average, a fall of 37.0%. That is before any costs or tax. Over the same years gold's yearly average was 12% lower.

Prices also rise sharply. Between the 2024-25 and 2025-26 yearly averages, gold went from ₹75,841.87 to ₹1,18,420.90 per 10 grams, a rise of 56.1%. Silver went from ₹89,130.53 to ₹1,62,672.25 a kilogram, a rise of 82.5%. These are past prices, not a pattern.

Yearly averages also hide falls inside a year, so those do not show in these figures.

Does silver do the same job as gold in a portfolio?

Not exactly. The two prices have moved together at times and apart at others. From 2012-13 to 2015-16, silver's yearly average fell 37% against gold's 12%.

Take the recovery after 2012-13. Gold's yearly average of ₹31,193.41 per 10 grams in 2018-19 was back above the 2012-13 level of ₹30,163.93. Silver passed its 2012-13 level only in 2020-21, at ₹59,283.26 a kilogram against ₹57,602.30.

Take every year from 1985-86 to 2025-26. RBI's yearly average was lower than the year before in 8 of 40 changes for gold. For silver it was 12 of 40. Those are dated facts about the past. They do not say what either metal will do next.

For what gold does inside a mix of investments, read our article on gold in your portfolio.

How can you invest in silver in India?

You can buy a silver ETF, a silver fund of funds, a fund that holds both metals, or physical bars and coins. An ETF is bought through a broker on the stock exchange. SEBI requires a silver fund of funds to hold at least 95% in the underlying fund.

A fund of funds is bought like any mutual fund. As a regular plan it comes through a distributor such as Koshex, who helps you choose and stays with you afterwards. You can also invest by SIP, which means a fixed amount at regular intervals, as in gold SIPs.

SEBI's rules shape what these funds hold:

• A silver ETF must keep at least 95% of its money in silver and silver-related instruments.
• It aims to follow the domestic silver price. Tracking error is how far the fund's daily returns stray from the silver price's.
• Its silver must be held as 30 kg bars of 99.9% purity.
• Exchange-traded silver futures may be at most 10% of the fund's value.
• From 1 April 2026, funds value their physical gold and silver at the prices that recognised stock exchanges publish.
• A fund of funds can charge at most 0.90% a year in total, including the cost of the ETF it holds.

Some funds hold both gold and silver ETFs, so they move partly with silver. SEBI calls these Commodity based FoF (Domestic). They must be passive, following the gold and silver prices rather than a manager's choices. A fund house may run only one.

Silver funds are young. SEBI's rules for silver ETFs date from November 2021. So the oldest silver funds of funds started in January 2022. As of October 2026 none has a five-year record. Koshex suggests 5 years or more for gold and silver funds.

Details of each category are on the silver funds and gold funds pages. For how an ETF differs from a fund of funds, see ETF vs FoF and exchange-traded funds. For other ways of holding gold, see ways to invest in gold.

How is silver taxed in India?

Silver fund units are taxed like gold fund units, whenever you bought them. The holding period is how long you have owned a unit. It decides whether a gain is short-term or long-term. A long-term gain is the profit on units sold after the holding-period line.

For listed ETF units that line is more than 12 months. For fund of funds units it is more than 24 months. A long-term gain is taxed at 12.5%, plus cess, assuming total income up to ₹50 lakh, so no surcharge.

Cess is an extra 4% charge on the tax. Surcharge is an extra charge on the tax once total income passes ₹50 lakh.

A short-term gain is the profit on units sold within the line. It is added to your income and taxed at your slab rate, plus 4% cess. The slab rate is the income-tax rate that applies to your income band.

Silver jewellery, coins and bars held as savings follow the same rule as gold. Sold after more than 24 months, the gain is taxed at 12.5% (plus 4% cess, assuming total income up to ₹50 lakh, so no surcharge). Sold in 24 months or less, it is added to your income and taxed at your slab rate. Our tax on gold article covers the physical metal in detail.

What is the gold-to-silver ratio?

It is how many grams of silver one gram of gold bought, worked out from RBI's yearly average prices. In 2025-26 it was about 73. In 2012-13 it was 52.4, and in 2024-25 it was 85.1.

Over the 41 years of RBI's table, the figure ran from 44.9 in 2011-12 to 87.1 in 2019-20. Each is a past yearly average, worked out as gold's price per gram divided by silver's price per gram.

The ratio describes what happened to the two prices. It is not a signal to buy or sell either metal.