Typically used in decorative applications, gold adds an attractive shiny appearance to a component to improve its visual appearance. Gold also has good conductivity, making it a good choice in electronic components. Additionally, gold has a high corrosion resistance.

Gold is a relatively soft metal, so to improve wear resistance, a layer of nickel is deposited onto the component first. The Gold Plating is added afterwards to provide a more decorative finish. A layer between 0.1 and 0.2 microns is deposited for decorative purposes. While thicker layers can be applied to increase durability and wear resistance, the cost increases accordingly.