How to Get Free Gold in The Elder Scrolls Online

The Elder Scrolls Online (ESO) has two clearly distinct currencies. Crowns are the premium currency: bought with real money and used in the Crown Store (cosmetics, mounts, standalone DLCs). Gold, on the other hand, is the currency that actually drives the game's economy: it's used to buy gear on Guild Traders, upgrade items, pay for fast travel, invest in houses, and trade between players. Unlike Crowns, Gold can genuinely be earned by playing, without spending a cent. In this guide, using real figures pulled from specialized guides, official forums, and the UESP wiki, we explain the most profitable methods for generating Gold consistently: from daily crafting writs to trading on Guild Traders, plus dungeons and selling materials. We'll also make clear, without beating around the bush, what the deal is with Crowns: there's no genuine free route to get them aside from the paid ESO Plus subscription and the occasional Bethesda giveaway during events.

What's the fastest way to get Gold in The Elder Scrolls Online?

We've gathered and verified every real method for getting free Gold, ranked from most to least profitable based on the time they take and what you can actually earn from each. No tricks, no generators — just the game's own mechanics.

~5,000-5,500 Gold/day per character Daily

Daily crafting writs

This is the most reliable, lowest-effort method. You collect up to 6 writs a day (one per crafting line: blacksmithing, clothing, woodworking, enchanting, alchemy, and provisioning) from city notice boards, craft the requested item, and turn it in. Each batch pays between 4,600 and just over 5,000 Gold with ESO Plus active, plus materials that are often worth more than the payout itself on Guild Traders. The method scales with the number of characters: players with several maxed-out characters report up to 90,000 Gold/day from writ payouts alone. It requires having completed writ certification (character level 6), and it's worth reaching level 50 in your crafting lines to maximize rewards.

Highly variable, from a few thousand to hundreds of thousands of Gold/hour Variable

Trading and flipping on Guild Traders

This is the activity with the highest profit ceiling, but it requires starting capital, time, and addons like Tamriel Trade Centre or Master Merchant to compare prices across guilds. It involves finding underpriced items on Guild Traders, buying them, and reselling them at market price; the margin is your profit, minus the guild's listing fee (around 1% per relist). Joining a trading guild based in a high-traffic city (Vivec, Mournhold, Rawl'kha) improves the visibility of your listings. It's not a method suited to beginners, nor one you can pin to a fixed figure: it depends entirely on available capital and market volatility.

Variable, occasional high-value drops Variable

Master Writs and writ vouchers

When completing regular writs, there's a chance of receiving a Master Writ, a more complex commission requiring special materials. Turning it in rewards Writ Vouchers, redeemable for furniture plans and rare recipes that sell very well on Guild Traders. It's a complement to daily writs rather than a standalone method: it boosts your return per hour spent crafting at no extra time cost.

Variable depending on market prices Variable

Gathering and selling materials (nodes, survey maps, refining)

Traveling the map gathering mining, woodcutting, or fiber and plant nodes yields materials that sell in batches (typically groups of 8, the amount needed to upgrade a piece of gear) on Guild Traders. Survey maps, dropped by writs, lead to zones with guaranteed higher-quality nodes. Refining raw materials and deconstructing gear with the Metal Extraction or Woodworking passives produce superior materials (including those used for Nirnhoned) that are in high demand. It's a passive income method you can run alongside other activities, but its profitability depends entirely on the server's prices at that moment.

No direct Gold payout; indirect value via sellable items Daily

Undaunted dungeons (Pledges) and group loot

Daily Undaunted Pledges (up to 3 dungeons a day, available from level 45) don't pay Gold directly, but instead give Undaunted Keys redeemable for chests containing monster sets, motifs, and other collectible items. These items, especially rare monster sets and motifs, resell well on Guild Traders. Weekly dungeons and Trials also drop transmutation crystals and high-level gear with resale value. It's not a source of Gold you can pin to a fixed figure, but it complements writs nicely if you're already playing in a group.

How much free Gold can you get per month?

Source	Estimated amount	Frequency
Daily writs (1 character)	~150,000 Gold/month	Daily
Daily writs (multiple characters, e.g. 5-6)	~750,000-900,000 Gold/month	Daily
Selling gathered materials	Variable	Variable
Trading/flipping on Guild Traders	Not reliably quantifiable	Variable
Estimated total	~150,000 Gold/month with a single character doing daily writs, up to several million/month for players with multiple characters and active trading. There's no real ceiling or single reliable figure.	—

The base figure (~150,000 Gold/month) comes from multiplying the average payout of a daily writ batch (~5,000 Gold) by 30 days, with a single character. Everything beyond that depends on huge variables: number of characters with leveled crafting, server prices, capital available for trading, and time spent on Guild Traders, which is where the real income ceiling lies.

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Frequently asked questions

Can you get Crowns for free by playing ESO?

Not directly. Crowns are the Crown Store's exclusive paid currency, and there's no in-game method to earn them by playing. The only 'free' route is indirect: the paid ESO Plus subscription grants 1,650 Crowns every 30 days as part of its perks, and Bethesda occasionally gives away free Crown Crates during events or via Twitch Drops if you link your Twitch account to the game — though these usually give cosmetic items rather than directly redeemable Crowns.

Can I buy Crowns with Gold or convert Gold into Crowns?

There's no official mechanism to exchange Gold for Crowns or vice versa. What you can do is buy, with Gold, from other players, Crown Store items that have already been redeemed and put on the market (mounts or pets, for example), but that doesn't give you Crowns — just the item itself.

What's the fastest way for a new player without leveled crafting to make Gold?

Before reaching high-level crafting, the most accessible source is gathering and selling basic materials (wood, ore, fiber, plants) through a trading guild, plus selling leftover gear from quests and dungeons. In parallel, it's worth leveling up writ certification and at least one crafting line as soon as possible, since daily writs are by far the most stable medium-term income source.

How to get free Gold in The Elder Scrolls Online