The influence of texture on the elastic behavior of Au thin films has been quantified experimentally and theoretically. The elastic behaviors of non-textured and {1 1 1} fiber-textured gold thin films were studied by in situ tensile testing using four-circle goniometers on a synchrotron beam line (LURE facility, France). The mechanical coupling of the substrate–thin film composite structure has been described and analytical solutions for diffraction strain analysis have been developed including texture and grain interaction models. These are applied to extract and compare elastic properties of the two types of gold films, and to quantify the effect of texture on the direction-dependent Young’s modulus.