GoldmitraLab-Grown vs Natural Diamonds: Full Comparison & Price Guide
Lab-grown and natural diamonds look identical, but their price, resale value, and long-term worth are very different. Here's the full comparison.
Lokendra Kumar Pushpaj·Published 28 Sept 2026·3 min read·2 views
A lab-grown diamond and a mined (natural) diamond are the same material — carbon, crystallised into the same structure — graded on the same scale by the same labs. The real differences between them are origin, price, and how each behaves once you try to resell it, and those differences have changed a lot in just the last few years.
Are Lab-Grown Diamonds Real Diamonds?
Yes. GIA (the Gemological Institute of America) and IGI both confirm that lab-grown diamonds share the same chemical composition, crystal structure, hardness, and optical properties as natural diamonds — they're graded on the identical 4Cs scale (cut, colour, clarity, carat) used for natural stones. Telling the two apart isn't possible by eye; it requires specialised lab equipment that detects subtle growth-pattern or trace-element differences from the formation process. "Lab-grown" describes where the crystal formed, not what it's made of.
How Lab-Grown Diamonds Are Made
Lab-grown diamonds are produced using one of two processes that recreate the conditions under which natural diamonds form deep in the earth: HPHT (High Pressure, High Temperature), which subjects a diamond seed to extreme pressure and heat, and CVD (Chemical Vapour Deposition), which grows a diamond crystal layer by layer from carbon-rich gas. Both processes take days to weeks rather than the hundreds of millions of years natural diamond formation takes underground.
Lab-Grown vs Natural: Price
This is where the two have diverged sharply. Bain & Company's diamond industry report (covered by Rapaport in February 2021) tracked 1-carat lab-grown diamond prices falling from about 65% of the equivalent natural diamond's price in 2017, to roughly 50% in 2018-19, to around 35% by 2020 — and industry trade coverage since has reported the gap widening further, with lab-grown wholesale prices continuing to fall through 2022-2025 as production capacity scaled up faster than demand. The core reason is supply: unlike a mined diamond, a lab-grown diamond can be manufactured on demand in a factory, so its price behaves like any manufactured good under expanding production — it falls as production scales, not a natural commodity with a geological supply constraint.
| Aspect | Lab-Grown Diamond | Natural Diamond |
|---|---|---|
| Origin | Grown in a lab (HPHT or CVD process), days to weeks | Formed underground over hundreds of millions of years, mined |
| Composition & structure | Identical carbon crystal structure | Identical carbon crystal structure |
| Grading standard | Same 4Cs scale, graded by GIA/IGI | Same 4Cs scale, graded by GIA/IGI |
| Price trend (2017-2025) | Falling — roughly 65% of natural price (2017) down to a fraction of that by the mid-2020s as production scaled up | Broadly flat to soft in recent years, with reported oversupply pressuring prices further |
| Typical resale value | Very low — roughly 1-10% of original retail price, per jewellery-trade and consumer-finance sources | Roughly 20-60% of original retail price (commonly cited range 25-50%), per the same sources |
| Supply constraint | None — output scales with factory capacity | Limited by geology and mine output, though currently in a reported glut (see our companion piece on diamond vs gold investment) |
Why Lab-Grown Resale Value Is Even Lower Than Natural
It seems counterintuitive that the cheaper stone resells for an even smaller fraction of what you paid, but it follows directly from the price trend above: if wholesale lab-grown prices keep falling as more production capacity comes online, a lab-grown diamond you bought last year is very likely worth less today than it was when you bought it, on top of the usual retail-to-resale markup gap every diamond faces. A natural diamond, while also reselling for a fraction of retail, isn't losing value from expanding factory output the same way.
Which Should You Buy?
If you want the look, size, and durability of a diamond for the lowest price, a lab-grown stone gets you there — often at a fraction of what an equivalent natural diamond costs, with identical appearance and grading. If resale value and rarity matter more to you than price, a natural diamond currently holds a meaningfully higher (though still limited) resale percentage. What neither option is, is an investment: see our companion piece, Diamond vs Gold: Which Is the Better Investment?, for why a diamond of either kind is a poor place to put money you actually want to grow.
Key takeaway
Neither a lab-grown nor a natural diamond is a reliable store of value. If part of your jewellery budget is meant to double as an investment, that portion is better spent on gold — see the comparison in our companion article.
Know the real cost of your jewellery
Gold value, making charges, and GST — broken out instantly.
Calculate jewellery cost →About the author
Lokendra Kumar Pushpaj
Founder, Goldmitra
Lokendra is the founder of Goldmitra and a product professional with 12 years of experience in product and technology, including building and scaling fintech and lending platforms — among them an agri-lending product that scaled to 100,000+ users. An IIT Bombay alumnus, he started Goldmitra out of a personal passion for gold, to make gold rates, calculators, and investment education simple and trustworthy for every Indian buying their first gold.
Frequently asked questions
Can jewellers tell a lab-grown diamond from a natural one?
Not by eye — they're chemically and physically identical. Distinguishing them requires specialised equipment (like GIA's or IGI's own screening devices) that detects subtle growth-pattern or trace-element differences from how each stone formed.
Is a lab-grown diamond a 'fake' diamond?
No — it's a real diamond, made of the same carbon crystal structure as a natural one, just grown in a lab (via HPHT or CVD) rather than mined. "Lab-grown" describes its origin, not a lower-quality substitute like moissanite or cubic zirconia, which are chemically different materials entirely.
Why are lab-grown diamonds so much cheaper than natural ones?
Because they can be manufactured on demand as production capacity expands, unlike mined diamonds, which are limited by geology. Industry reporting (Bain & Company, via Rapaport) tracked lab-grown prices falling from roughly 65% of natural diamond prices in 2017 to a much smaller fraction by the mid-2020s as more production capacity came online.
Do lab-grown diamonds hold their value?
No — considerably less than natural diamonds. Jewellery-trade and consumer-finance sources put typical lab-grown resale value at roughly 1-10% of the original retail price, lower than the 20-60% range typically cited for natural diamonds, largely because wholesale lab-grown prices have kept falling as production scales up.
Is a natural diamond a good investment?
Generally no, for the ordinary consumer. Natural diamonds typically resell for only a fraction (commonly cited as 25-50%) of what you paid at retail, and there's no standardised market or spot price the way there is for gold. See our companion guide, Diamond vs Gold: Which Is the Better Investment?, for the full comparison.
Are lab-grown diamonds graded the same way as natural diamonds?
Yes — both GIA and IGI grade lab-grown diamonds on the identical 4Cs scale (cut, colour, clarity, carat) used for natural diamonds. The grading report will state that the stone is laboratory-grown, but the grading criteria themselves are the same.