Hydrogen is dissociatively adsorbed on the gold particles in Au/Al2O3 catalysts, as demonstrated by a combination of in-situ X-ray absorption spectroscopy, chemisorption, and H/D exchange experiments. This chemisorption of hydrogen induces changes in the An L-3 and L-2 X-ray absorption near-edge structures. The gold atoms on corner and edge positions dissociate the hydrogen, which does not spill over to the face sites. Therefore, the average number of adsorbed hydrogen atoms per surface gold atom increases with decreasing particle size. With temperature, the hydrogen uptake by supported gold increases or remains constant, whereas it decreases for platinum. Furthermore, in H/D exchange experiments, the activity of Au/Al2O3 increases strongly with temperature. Thus, the dissociation and adsorption of hydrogen on gold is activated.