Securitization Activities - Firms Continuing Involvement in Securitization Entities to Which Firm Sold Assets (Detail) - USD ($) $ in Millions	Mar. 31, 2020	Dec. 31, 2019
Qualitative and Quantitative Information, Transferor's Continuing Involvement [Line Items]
Outstanding principal amount	$ 70,631	$ 67,694
Retained interests	2,846	3,372
Purchased interests	62	33
U.S. government agency-issued CMOs [Member]
Qualitative and Quantitative Information, Transferor's Continuing Involvement [Line Items]
Outstanding principal amount	14,309	14,328
Retained interests	935	1,530
Purchased interests	14	3
Other Residential Mortgage-backed [Member]
Qualitative and Quantitative Information, Transferor's Continuing Involvement [Line Items]
Outstanding principal amount	23,121	24,166
Retained interests	1,047	1,078
Purchased interests	25	24
Other Commercial Mortgage-backed [Member]
Qualitative and Quantitative Information, Transferor's Continuing Involvement [Line Items]
Outstanding principal amount	29,350	25,588
Retained interests	708	615
Purchased interests	19	6
Corporate debt and other asset-backed [Member]
Qualitative and Quantitative Information, Transferor's Continuing Involvement [Line Items]
Outstanding principal amount	3,851	3,612
Retained interests	156	$ 149
Purchased interests	$ 4

Purchased interests in securitization entities in which the firm also holds retained interests.

No definition available.

Name:	gs_PurchasedInterests
Namespace Prefix:	gs_
Data Type:	xbrli:monetaryItemType
Balance Type:	debit
Period Type:	instant

- Definition

Retained interest continued to be held by a transferor after transferring financial assets to a third party.

+ References

No definition available.

+ Details

Name:	gs_RetainedInterests
Namespace Prefix:	gs_
Data Type:	xbrli:monetaryItemType
Balance Type:	debit
Period Type:	instant

- Definition

Principal amount of transferred financial assets in which the transferor has continuing involvement with the assets underlying the transaction. Continuing involvement includes, but is not limited to, servicing, recourse, and restrictions on transferor's interests in transferred financial assets.

+ References

Reference 1: http://fasb.org/us-gaap/role/ref/legacyRef
-Publisher FASB
-Name Accounting Standards Codification
-Topic 860
-SubTopic 20
-Section 50
-Paragraph 4
-Subparagraph (a)(1)
-URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=118948506&loc=d3e107314-111719

+ Details

Name:	us-gaap_ContinuingInvolvementWithTransferredFinancialAssetsPrincipalAmountOutstanding
Namespace Prefix:	us-gaap_
Data Type:	xbrli:monetaryItemType
Balance Type:	debit
Period Type:	instant

- Definition

Line items represent financial concepts included in a table. These concepts are used to disclose reportable information associated with domain members defined in one or many axes to the table.

+ References

No definition available.

+ Details

Name:	us-gaap_QualitativeAndQuantitativeInformationTransferorsContinuingInvolvementLineItems
Namespace Prefix:	us-gaap_
Data Type:	xbrli:stringItemType
Balance Type:	na
Period Type:	duration

- Details

Name:	us-gaap_VariableInterestEntitiesByClassificationOfEntityAxis=us-gaap_MortgageBackedSecuritiesIssuedByUSGovernmentSponsoredEnterprisesMember
Namespace Prefix:
Data Type:	na
Balance Type:
Period Type:

- Details

Name:	us-gaap_VariableInterestEntitiesByClassificationOfEntityAxis=us-gaap_ResidentialMortgageBackedSecuritiesMember
Namespace Prefix:
Data Type:	na
Balance Type:
Period Type:

- Details

Name:	us-gaap_VariableInterestEntitiesByClassificationOfEntityAxis=us-gaap_CommercialMortgageBackedSecuritiesMember
Namespace Prefix:
Data Type:	na
Balance Type:
Period Type:

- Details

Name:	us-gaap_VariableInterestEntitiesByClassificationOfEntityAxis=gs_CorporateDebtAndOtherAssetBackedSecuritiesMember
Namespace Prefix:
Data Type:	na
Balance Type:
Period Type: