A precious metal paste which does not cause contamination of a member, which can be uniformly coated to a member to be bonded, and which is in good condition after bonding is provided. The present invention relates to a precious metal paste for bonding a semiconductor element, of the paste including a precious metal powder and an organic solvent, in which the precious metal powder has a purity of 99.9 mass % or more and an average particle diameter of 0.1 to 0.5 μm, the organic solvent has a boiling point of 200 to 350° C., and a thixotropy index (TI) value calculated from a measurement value of a viscosity at a shear rate of 4/s with respect to a viscosity at a shear rate of 40/s at 23° C. by means of a rotational viscometer is 6.0 or more.