What a diamond costs in Canada right now

Most price guides quote a number someone wrote down months ago. This one is read off the stones we have for sale today, so it moves when the market does. Every stone behind it carries its own report from an independent laboratory, and every price is in CA$ before tax.

The table

To keep it a fair comparison, the table holds one specification still: Round, D to H colour, VS2 or better. A stone counts toward a size when it sits from that weight up to 0.1 ct over it, so 1 ct means 1.00 to 1.09 ct, which is how stones are sold. A size needs at least 3 stones before we quote a median for it.

What 1 carat costs

Today a 1 carat round, D to H, VS2 or better, costs a median of CA$813 lab-grown and CA$5,070 natural. Same shape, same grades, same weight. The difference is rarity: one was grown in weeks, the other formed underground and is one of a finite number.

Colour and clarity move the number more than most people expect. A G colour, VS2 stone looks the same as a D, flawless one to nearly everyone, and costs much less. Cut moves how it looks more than anything else, and is the last place we would save.

Why the gap is so wide

Lab-grown prices have fallen for years as growing capacity expanded, and they are still falling. Natural prices are set by scarcity, and each extra carat is rarer than the one before, so the natural column climbs faster than the lab-grown one. That is also why a lab-grown stone resells for very little and a natural one holds more of its price. Both are real diamonds; the full trade-off is in our guide to natural or lab-grown and what a diamond is worth after you buy it.