Diamond price per carat
Price per carat is not flat — it climbs with weight, in steps. A 1.00 carat stone costs about 30% more per carat than a 0.95 carat one, and a 2 carat stone costs far more than two 1 carat stones. The chart is the whole argument.
Price per carat by weight — G color, VS2, Very Good cut, round
Vertical steps are the price brackets. Each begins at a weight buyers ask for — 0.50, 0.70, 0.90, 1.00, 1.50, 2.00, 3.00, 4.00 ct. The stone just below each step is the value buy.
The table
| Weight | Per carat | Natural retail | Lab-grown retail | vs. two stones of half the weight |
|---|
How to use this
Decide the visible size you want in millimeters — the size chart shows every weight to scale — then buy the weight just under the nearest step. A 0.90 ct round is 6.27 mm across; a 1.00 ct is 6.50 mm. Nobody can see 0.23 mm on a hand, and the price difference is about a quarter of the stone.
Per-carat figures move with color and clarity in the same proportions at every weight, so the shape of the curve is the same whatever grade you buy. See the color chart and clarity chart for those multipliers.