Diamond Buying Guide

A good understanding of diamonds is essential if you want to get the best quality and price.

To select the best diamond, you will need to start with the diamond’s certificate (also known as a grading report). The certificate will give you detailed information about the “4 C’s” that you’ll need in order to make the correct buying decision. All quality center diamonds will come with a certificate. The two most respected are GIA (Gemological Institute of America), and AGS (American Gemological Society). They both are well recognized for their accurate grading standards. At the high end, AGS is often preferred because of their more comprehensive cut and light performance specifications.

Where to Start When Buying Your Diamond

Choosing a diamond centers on selecting the shape, size, color, clarity, cut and quality. Let’s start with the shape…

Diamond Shape

Diamonds are offered in several different shapes. The three most popular shapes that we will cover in this guide, are the Round cut, Princess Cut and Cushion cut. Selecting the diamond’s shape is all about personal style and preference.

There are those that say that “personality traits” may help predict which diamond shape your bride-to-be will prefer…

• Round: traditional romantic
• Princess: trendsetter and outgoing
• Cushion: style and romance

The round is the most popular, followed by the Princess, with the cushion recently coming into fashion.

You can visit our Diamond Shape Guide and Does Your Diamond Reflect Your Personality pages for more ideas.

The Four C’s

Once you’ve chosen the shape of the diamond, it comes down to selecting the diamond’s size and quality, which brings us to the “Four C’s” – cut, color, clarity, and carat weight.

Carats

Everyone knows about carats. It’s how big the diamond is, and the bigger the better! However, technically speaking, a carat is a measurement of the diamond’s weight, not its size. (One carat is 200mg). Depending on how a diamond is cut, two diamonds of the same carat weight can appear visually slightly larger or smaller from one another. But in general, the more carats, the bigger the diamond appears.

Large diamonds are expensive. Due to the scarcity of larger diamonds, the price of a diamond grows exponentially as its size increases. According to a recent survey by The Knot, the average size of an engagement ring’s center diamond is 1.1 carats. What size you can afford will depend on your budget and the quality (cut, color, clarity) of the diamond…

Cut

Cut can be confusing, because the diamond industry uses it in two different ways. One, is in describing the diamond’s shape, such as Round cut, Princess cut, etc.

The other use, which is the one listed in a GIA or AGS grading report, is in describing how well proportioned the diamond is. The better a diamond is proportioned, the better its light performance: sparkle, brilliance, scintillation and fire.

In general, try to stick to diamonds graded Excellent or at least Very Good. At the high end are diamonds considered “Super Ideal” or “Hearts and Arrows” quality.

Like carats, the better a diamond is proportioned, the more expensive it will be. But unlike carats, the price doesn’t grow exponentially. An Excellent cut diamond is only about 15% more expensive than a Very Good cut. So unless you’re on a tight budget, select an excellent cut; you’ll get a bit more added sparkle if you do.

Color

The term color is a measurement of the degree of yellowish tint that is visible in a “white” diamond. Graded on an industry-standard scale from D (colorless) to Z (light yellow), the less yellowish tint visible in the diamond the more expensive it will be.

Most people find the best value in the G,H,I and maybe J (near colorless) range. These diamonds can be thousands of dollars less expensive than the D,E,F (colorless) diamonds, yet color-wise, almost indistinguishable from their more expensive counterparts.

Clarity

A diamond’s clarity is a measurement of how many imperfections it has. Diamonds are graded on a scale from F (flawless), IF (internally flawless), VVS1-VVS2 (very very slightly included), VS1-VS2 (very slightly included), SI1-SI2 (slightly included) through I1-I2-I3 (included).

In general, imperfections in diamonds rated F/IF through VS1-VS2 will not be visible to the unaided eye.

The best value will be in diamonds rated VS1 or VS2.

You can find great value in SI1/SI2 diamonds, but you need to examine them visually to make sure they are “eye clean”. For example, James Allen’s “360° Diamond Display Technology” lets you view a magnified video of each diamond in their inventory. So with a little extra work, you can save yourself quite a bit of money.

For more information on the Four C’s, take a look at our Diamond Pricing and the Four C’s guide.

In addition to the 4 C’s, there are a few other factors to consider when selecting your diamond, specifically: Polish, Symmetry and Fluorescence. Visit our Diamond Anatomy and Pricing page for more details.

For Diamond Connoisseurs

As mentioned earlier, how well a diamond is cut will determine its light performance. At the high-end, diamond connoisseurs seek out the “Super Ideal” or “Hearts and Arrows” cut diamonds.

These diamonds are cut for maximum light performance, and during the cutting process, the cutter will sacrifice carat size for optimizing the diamond’s proportions for the best sparkle and brilliance.

So for a given carat size these diamonds can be several thousand dollars more expensive.

Reflector technology tools such as the ASET (Angular Spectrum Evaluation Theory), introduced by the American Gem Society in 2005, can help the diamond connoisseur to objectively evaluate the cut proportions of these high-end diamonds,

Diamond Guidelines Pricing Table  

According to The Knot’s third annual Engagement & Jewelry Study, the average price of an engagement ring is $5,403. In addition, the average size of the center diamond is 1.1 carats (source). Figuring a typical breakdown of 75% spent on the center diamond and 25% spent on the setting, then on average a 1.1 carat diamond will be $4052, with a setting of $1351.

Which interestingly enough is almost exactly what our diamond guidelines pricing table (below) says should be the price for a 1.1 carat diamond when optimized for best price.

Our diamond guidelines pricing table is our best recommendations and advice for selecting Round cut, Princess cut, and Cushion cut diamonds. There are three categories for each carat range: Best Price, Balanced and Connoisseur.

“Best Price” are diamonds optimized for carat size, with a J (nearly colorless) color, SI2 clarity (which should be visually inspected to be “eye clean”), and a Very Good/Excellent cut. While these diamonds may not sparkle quite as much as a “connoisseur” diamond, they will still have a pretty nice sparkle, with the added bonus of being around half the price!

“Balanced” are diamonds selected for a balance between best price and best light performance. With a color ranging between I,H,G (nearly colorless), VS2 clarity, and Excellent cut.

“Connoisseur” are diamonds optimized for maximum light performance (brilliance and sparkle). With a color ranging between I,H,G (nearly colorless), VS2 clarity, and “Super Ideal” cut. Typically, they will be AGS certified diamonds and will have ASET images for light performance evaluation. These will be the highest quality (and most expensive) diamonds for each category (Often twice as expensive as a diamond optimized for best price).

Diamond Guidelines Pricing Table

Carats	Best Price	Balanced	Connoisseur
0.5	Round J/SI2/VG, $1200 Princess J/SI2/VG, $790 Cushion J/SI2, $890	Round I/VS2/EX, $1600 Princess I/VS2/EX, $1020 Cushion I/VS2, $1000	–
0.6	Round J/SI2/VG, $1500 Princess J/SI2/VG, $1000 Cushion J/SI2, $1100	Round I/VS2/EX, $2000 Princess I/VS2/EX, $1200 Cushion I/VS2, $1200	–
0.7	Round J/SI2/VG, $1650 Princess J/SI2/VG, $1500 Cushion J/SI2, $1600	Round I/VS2/EX, $2400 Princess I/VS2/EX, $1900 Cushion I/VS2, $1800	–
0.75	Round J/SI2/VG, $1900 Princess J/SI2/VG, $1600 Cushion J/SI2, $1700	Round I/VS2/EX, $2800 Princess H/VS2/EX, $2700 Cushion H/VS2, $2600	–
0.8	Round J/SI2/VG, $2400 Princess J/SI2/VG, $2000 Cushion J/SI2, $1800	Round I/VS2/EX, $3000 Princess H/VS2/EX, $2300 Cushion H/VS2, $2100	–
0.9	Round J/SI2/VG, $3000 Princess J/SI2/VG, $2500 Cushion J/SI2, $2200	Round I/VS2/EX, $4500 Princess H/VS2/EX, $3700 Cushion H/VS2, $3000	Round I/VS2/ID, $6400 Princess G/VS2/ID, $4600
1.0	Round J/SI2/VG, $3500 Princess J/SI2/VG, $2800 Cushion J/SI2, $2700	Round I/VS2/EX, $6000 Princess H/VS2/EX, $4400 Cushion H/VS2, $3900	Round I/VS2/ID, $7800 Princess G/VS2/ID, $6200 Cushion G/VS2, $8600
1.1	Round J/SI2/VG, $4000 Princess J/SI2/VG, $3700 Cushion J/SI2, $3000	Round I/VS2/EX, $6900 Princess H/VS2/EX, $5200 Cushion H/VS2, $5000	Round I/VS2/ID, $8700 Princess G/VS2/ID, $6600 Cushion G/VS2, $9700
1.2	–	Round I/VS2/EX, $7200 Princess H/VS2/EX, $6000 Cushion H/VS2, $5500	Round I/VS2/ID, $10000 Princess G/VS2/ID, $7300 Cushion G/VS2, $11000
1.5	–	Round I/VS2/EX, $11000 Princess H/VS2/EX, $10000 Cushion H/VS2, $9500	Round I/VS2/ID, $15000 Princess G/VS2/ID, $12000 Cushion G/VS2, $18000

Our Hand Selected Diamonds

Learning about diamonds can take quite a bit of time. If you’d rather skip all that studying, we have hand selected an excellent collection of quality diamonds that you can purchase right now…

• Hand Selected Diamonds

While you can get a slightly cheaper diamond by going below our guidelines, it’s not recommended. We don’t recommend a cut below “Very Good” as you lose just too much sparkle. You should also avoid I1-I3 diamonds as they have too many inclusions, which can jeopardize the integrity of the stone as well as its brilliance. However, you can try a K (faint yellow) colored diamond, especially if your ring setting uses yellow gold, which will help mask the yellowish tint of the K colored diamond.