Lab-Grown vs Natural Diamond Prices

This page carries our current view of lab-grown diamond pricing relative to natural. It is the one place on this site where we state a figure, so that when the market moves we change it here rather than leaving a stale number scattered across the catalogue.

Where pricing sits today

A lab-grown diamond currently trades at around 5% of the price of a natural diamond at the same shape, carat, colour and clarity.

That ratio is not fixed and it is not uniform. It varies with size, shape and certification, and it has moved a long way in a short time. A few years ago the same comparison would have put lab-grown at roughly 30% of natural. Anyone quoting you a percentage from an article written two years ago is quoting a number that no longer holds.

Why the gap opened

Natural diamond pricing reflects scarcity. Lab-grown pricing reflects production cost, and production capacity has grown enormously while the technology has improved. Larger stones that were difficult to grow a decade ago are now routine, and the cost of growing them has fallen each year.

The two markets have effectively decoupled. Natural diamond prices move on supply, mine output and demand for natural specifically. Lab-grown prices move on manufacturing capacity. There is no mechanism tying them together any more.

What this means for a jeweller

The stone is the same material. Lab-grown diamond is chemically, physically and optically identical to mined diamond. IGI grades it on the same colour, clarity and cut scales, using the same equipment and the same criteria.

What changes is what you can offer. Specifications that were out of reach for a customer at a given budget are now comfortably inside it. A centre stone a carat larger. A colour grade or two higher. A fancy coloured diamond in a saturation that natural supply cannot produce at commercial volume at all.

It also changes how you hold stock. At current pricing, carrying diamond inventory ties up far less capital than it did, which makes stocking viable for workshops that previously bought per commission.

Disclosure

Sell lab-grown as lab-grown. Every certified stone we supply carries an IGI report stating that it is laboratory grown, along with the growth method. The material is strong enough to stand on its own description, and the customer who wants it is buying it deliberately.

Verifying the figure

We review this page as the market moves. If you are building a price list or a customer-facing comparison against our figures, contact us and we will confirm where pricing sits on the day rather than on the day this page was last edited.