Diamond Prices Just Hit a 100-Year Low. So Why Isn't Jewelry Getting Any Cheaper?
In an economy where prices are climbing everywhere you look, there’s one bright, shining example that bucks the trend: diamonds.
Diamond prices have plunged by 50% since 2022 and are now at a record low.
Unfortunately, if you’re shopping for some bling this spring, you still shouldn’t expect to see eye-popping discounts at the jewelry counter. Huge gains in the price of gold — including a jump of more than 60% last year alone — and other precious metals have pushed jewelry inflation up by roughly 10% on an unadjusted basis from a year ago.
While gemstone experts say there are a few reasons why the price you'll pay for a diamond has fallen like a rock, there's one factor that is far and away responsible for much of the diamond deflation: the surging production of lab-created diamonds.
Recreating nature, at a fraction of the cost
Unlike imitations made out of moissanite or cubic zirconia, lab-grown diamonds are physically and chemically indistinguishable from their mined counterparts.
Big diamond producers like De Beers have promoted mined diamonds as aesthetically and conceptually superior to their lab-created counterparts, and both sides appeal to consumers’ sense of ethics: Diamonds created in a lab aren’t saddled with the humanitarian and ethical concerns that historically have dogged the mining industry, although recreating the heat and pressure that creates diamonds deep within the earth consumes prodigious amounts of fossil fuels.
But while humanitarian or ecological concerns might influence consumer behavior at the margins, industry analysts say the much bigger factor is less complicated: Lab-created stones are much, much cheaper.
Diamond industry analyst Paul Zimnisky told The New York Times last year that between January 2015 and January 2025, lab-grown diamond prices plunged by about 85% — and lab specimens can be purchased for a roughly 90% discount compared to their mined counterparts.
Diamond and jewelry industry analyst Edahn Golan says one reason was a miscalculation on the part of wholesalers: In the years coming out of the pandemic, the industry built up stockpiles in anticipation of a surge in pent-up demand from Chinese consumers. But when the Chinese real-estate market teetered and put a chill on the world’s second-largest economy, it kept much of that demand from materializing.
“Supply completely outdid demand,” Golan tells Money.
This supply glut had a spillover effect, dragging down the prices of mined diamonds. That’s bad news for producers of mined and lab-created diamonds alike, consulting firm McKinsey & Co. determined in a 2024 report, concluding that the growing production and popularity of lab-manufactured stones, is “likely the biggest challenge facing diamond producers today.”
Bigger bling is a growing trend
The industry's woes are a rare bright spot for consumers — and there’s every indication that shoppers are taking advantage of it.
The diamond market in the U.S., which is dominated by engagement rings, hit an inflection point, according to wedding website The Knot's 2026 Real Weddings Study: More than half of engagement rings purchased last year featured lab-created stones.
The pricing disparity is significant enough that shoppers can spring for a bigger rock and still come out ahead compared to the price of a mined diamond. Buyers “are opting for spending the same or similar amount of money, but for a significantly larger stone,” Alexander Lacik, former CEO of jewelry brand Pandora, told Fortune magazine in a 2024 interview.
American shoppers previously had a longstanding preference for 1-carat stones within a narrow band of color and clarity parameters. Now, that’s changed, according to Golan. “The halo effect is that, post-Covid... there was such a demand for lab-grown diamonds that were quote-unquote better or bigger [that] we’re seeing an increase in average sizes,” he says.
The average weight of an engagement ring center stone is 2 carats for lab-grown versus 1.6 carats for mined, according to The Knot. This is pushing up the overall size of engagement ring stones, which rose from an average of 1.5 carats in 2021 to 1.7 carats in 2024.
Yet even with bigger stones, increasing adoption of lab-grown diamonds has actually pushed engagement ring prices down, The Knot’s survey found. The 2025 average price of $5,200 is nearly 6% lower than 2023 and more than 15% lower than 2021.
Gold prices remain a headwind
The fly in the ointment — or the inclusion in the diamond, if you will — is the astronomical growth in the price of gold.
Gold has been rising on the strength of investor anxiety about volatility in stocks and stubborn inflation, combined with central banks around the world snapping up bullion to diversify against the U.S. dollar. Although the newest data shows that some central banks are now unwinding those purchases, the experts don’t see a reversal anytime soon. Gregory Shearer, head of Base and Precious Metals Strategy at J.P. Morgan, predicts that the yellow metal could hit $6,300 this year.
If gold's bullish cycle runs its course, though, people shopping for an engagement ring or tennis bracelet could be in luck. And in the meantime, there are a few ways people can keep their costs down: Some jewelry retailers report an increase in customers repurposing existing settings or bringing in old gold jewelry to be melted down. Deal-seeking shoppers are also gravitating toward more lightweight designs that require less metal or opting for a lower-karat weight to save money.
And the trend of lab-grown gems isn't going away, which is good news for consumers when it comes to diamond prices. “They’ll continue to decline for lab-grown,” Golan predicts.
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