Gold efficiency in LoL: what it is and how it’s calculated
Gold efficiency measures how much an item’s stats are worth compared to what it costs. It’s the foundation for knowing whether an item “pays for itself” — but, as you’ll see, it isn’t everything.
What is gold efficiency?
Every stat in the game (health, attack damage, ability power, armor…) has a reference gold value, derived from the basic items that grant it in pure form. For example, the gold that 1 attack damage “costs” comes from the price of Long Sword divided by the AD it gives.
An item’s gold efficiency is the sum of the gold value of all its stats, divided by its cost, expressed as a percentage. If an item gives stats worth 900 gold and costs 1000, its efficiency is 90%.
eficiencia (%) = ( Σ valor_en_oro(stat) ) / costo × 100 
The six items from the crit build above, with their real icons. Tap any to see which champions build it and its gold efficiency.
The per-stat value table
The values come from the most basic items: Long Sword sets the price of attack damage, Null-Magic Mantle that of magic resist, Ruby Crystal that of health, and so on. Some well-known anchors are around ~2.67 gold per point of health and ~35 per point of attack damage.
You don’t need to memorize them: the site’s item calculator applies the exact table for the patch and shows you the breakdown stat by stat. What matters is understanding the method — add up each stat’s value in gold and compare it to the cost. Where that gold comes from in the first place is in where gold comes from.
Computed with the engine’s gold table (the price of the basic item that gives the pure stat). 1 point costs:
Why 100% isn’t everything
Gold efficiency only measures flat stats. It doesn’t see passives, actives or synergies. Items like Infinity Edge or Rabadon’s look “inefficient” on paper, but their passives (boosted crit, % power) make them brutal in the right build.
It also ignores context: 1000 gold of armor is useless against an AP team. That’s why efficiency is a starting point, not a verdict. Use it to rule out weak items and to compare similar options, but decide while also looking at the passive and the matchup.
Each dot is an item: X is what it costs, Y is what its pure stats are worth by the engine’s gold table. Dots on or above the diagonal are efficient; components define the line and finished items stack combine cost and passives on top.
How to use it in your builds
Open the item catalog and sort by efficiency to see at a glance which components give the most per gold. In the compare tool, pit 2 or 3 items against each other and look not just at the percentage, but at the value each one adds to YOUR champion against a specific target.
Rule of thumb: on components and cheap items, efficiency rules. On legendary items, the passive and the synergy with your kit matter more than the last 5% of efficiency.
Each crit item gives +25%. Four reach 100% (the cap). A 5th crit adds nothing: that overflow is pure wasted gold. Optimizing means buying right up to the cap and putting the rest into another stat.
FAQ
Is an item above 100% efficiency always good?
Not necessarily. 100%+ means its flat stats are worth more than its cost, but if those stats don’t help your champion or the matchup, it’s still a bad buy.
Where do the per-stat gold values come from?
From the most basic items that grant that stat in pure form (Long Sword for AD, Ruby Crystal for health, etc.). It’s the canonical table the community uses, applied with the current patch’s prices.
Why do Infinity Edge or Rabadon’s have low efficiency?
Because part of their power is in the passive (boosted crit, % ability power), which gold efficiency doesn’t measure. In the right build, that passive makes them far stronger than the percentage suggests.