What lab grown diamonds cost, and what moves the number
A few recent pieces from the workshop.
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Same stone.
Three more hands in the middle.
How it usually works
- Our factory workshop makes it
- plus a distributor takes a cut
- plus the brand takes another
- plus the showroom's rent goes on top
equals that’s what you get quoted
How it works with us
- Our factory workshop makes it
equals that’s what you pay
Usually 20–30% less than a showroom for the same certified stone. Same look, one less margin.
Lab-grown · made and sold by the same people since 1991
What lab grown diamonds cost, and what moves the number
Four things move the price of a piece, and they do not move it equally. Carat weight is the one everybody asks about first and it matters least per rupee. Cut grade matters most for how the finished piece actually looks. Metal weight and karat quietly account for more of the total than people expect on anything other than a solitaire. Making charge is the fourth, and it is the one that varies most between sellers for identical work.
The reason carat behaves differently with lab grown stones is worth understanding properly. With mined diamonds, price rises steeply and non-linearly with size, because large rough is genuinely rare. Lab grown stones are produced rather than found, so the size premium is a production cost rather than a scarcity premium. That is why a three carat lab grown piece is a normal purchase for a lot of people and a three carat mined one is not.
It also means the advice changes. On a mined stone the standard guidance is to drop carat weight to protect cut grade and colour. On a lab grown stone you can usually hold cut grade at excellent and still go up in size, because you are not fighting a rarity curve. If somebody is steering you towards a smaller stone at the same budget, ask them why.
We quote factory price because we are the factory. There is no showroom rent, no distributor and no middleman commission in the number. What we will not do is put figures on a web page: the honest quote depends on the specification, the metal weight and the current stone cost, and a number on a page is either out of date or so hedged it tells you nothing.
Tell us the budget you actually have and what you want to make of it. We will tell you what is reachable at that number and what is not, including when the answer is that you should wait or spend less.
What each carat size actually means
A one carat diamond ring is where most engagement buying sits, and it is the size the whole market is priced around. On a mined stone this is already a serious number; on a lab grown stone it is the point where people usually find they can hold excellent cut and go up in colour grade rather than compromising on both.
A two carat diamond ring is roughly where the mined market starts becoming an outlier purchase and the lab grown market does not. The stone reads clearly across a table. This is the size where the price gap between mined and lab grown becomes the deciding factor for most people rather than an interesting fact.
A three carat diamond ring is a genuinely large stone, and it is the size that best illustrates why lab grown changed things. Three carats mined is a rarity purchase priced on scarcity. Three carats lab grown is a production cost, so the number is a multiple of the one carat rather than an order of magnitude above it.
Five, eight and ten carat rings exist and we make them, but be clear-eyed about the piece: above about five carats you are choosing a stone that will be commented on, and the setting has to be engineered for the weight rather than scaled up from a smaller design. Tell us if it is for daily wear and we will build it differently.
The four things inside every quote
The stone. Carat, cut, colour and clarity, with an IGI, GIA or HRD certificate and a report number inscribed on the girdle. Cut grade is the one that decides how the stone actually looks and the one most quotes gloss over.
The metal. Gold weight and karat, or platinum. On anything other than a solitaire this is a larger share of the total than most people expect, and it moves with the daily gold rate rather than being fixed.
The making. The hours in the factory workshop turning the first two into a finished piece. Ours is stated separately rather than folded into one total, because a making charge buried inside a single number is the easiest place for a quote to hide.
The route. Whether the piece reached you through a distributor, a brand and a showroom, or straight from the people who made it. This is the only one of the four we can remove entirely, and removing it is the whole of our pricing argument.
Where lab grown does and does not save you money
It saves you most on the stone, and the saving widens as the stone gets larger, because you stop paying a scarcity premium that never applied to a produced material in the first place.
It saves you nothing on the gold. Metal is metal, priced daily, identical whoever makes your ring. On a heavy men's band or a bridal set with substantial gold weight, the stone may be a smaller share of the total than you assume, and the lab grown saving will feel smaller as a result.
It saves you nothing on the making either. Good setting takes the same hours whichever way the carbon crystallised. Anyone quoting a lab grown piece at a fraction of a mined one across the whole invoice is either cutting the making or cutting the metal.
And a straight caveat: resale behaves differently. Mined stones have an established second-hand market; lab grown does not in the same way. If you are buying partly as a store of value, that is a real conversation and we would rather have it before you buy than after.
Common questions
- Why won't you put prices on the website?
- Because a real quote depends on the specification, metal weight and karat, the making charge for that particular design, and the stone cost on the day. A figure on a page would be a range wide enough to be useless or a number that is quietly wrong. Ask us on WhatsApp and you get an actual number for an actual piece.
- How much less does lab grown cost than mined?
- Up to 60% for the same size and grade, and the gap widens as the stone gets larger, because you stop paying a rarity premium. The exact figure changes with size and grade, so we will give you the real comparison for the specification you are considering.
- Is a bigger lab grown stone a worse buy than a smaller mined one?
- They are different purchases rather than better and worse. A lab grown stone is the same material with the same certificate from the same laboratories, and it costs less because of how it was produced. If resale value is your priority, that is a real conversation and mined stones behave differently — ask us and we will give you the honest version.
- How much does a 1 carat lab grown diamond ring cost?
- It depends on cut grade, colour, clarity and how much gold the setting carries — which is why a figure here would be misleading rather than helpful. Message us with roughly what you want and we will send a real number for a real specification, usually the same day.
- Is a 3 carat lab grown diamond ring actually within reach?
- For a lot of people, yes, and that is genuinely new. Because lab grown stones are produced rather than found, price rises with size as a production cost instead of a scarcity premium. A three carat stone is a multiple of a one carat rather than many multiples of it. Tell us your budget and we will tell you straight whether three carats sits inside it.
- Do you quote less per carat for bigger stones?
- Per carat, effectively yes, compared with what the same size would cost mined. In absolute terms a bigger stone still costs more. What changes with lab grown is that the curve is far flatter, which is why the advice to drop carat weight to protect cut grade does not really apply here.
- Can I get a written quote?
- Yes, and you should ask every jeweller for one. Ours separates the stone specification, the metal weight and karat, and the making charge, so you can line it up against anyone else's rather than comparing two totals that are not measuring the same thing.
- How long after I approve the quote is the piece ready?
- About two weeks from agreed design and stone to a finished piece, for a single custom ring. A set with several matching pieces takes a little longer, and we confirm the date with you before you commit.
- What is a making charge and should I be comparing it?
- It is the cost of turning metal and stones into a finished piece, and yes, compare it explicitly. It is often quoted as a percentage and it is where two otherwise identical quotes most often diverge. We state ours separately rather than burying it in a single total.