Lab-Grown Diamond Prices in Australia: What Has Changed and Where Things Stand in 2026
Lab grown diamond prices fell by roughly 88 percent between 2020 and 2025. Buyers who were watching that decline have a reasonable question: has the drop stopped, and does it make sense to buy now or keep waiting?
This post covers what actually drove the price decline, where prices sit today, and what the data from 2025 and 2026 shows about the trajectory going forward.
Where Lab-Grown Diamond Prices Started
In early 2020, a one-carat round brilliant lab grown diamond retailed for approximately $3,410 USD. At that point, lab grown diamonds were priced at roughly 30 to 40 percent below comparable mined diamonds — a meaningful discount, but not a dramatic one.
The market was still relatively new. CVD (chemical vapour deposition) and HPHT (high pressure, high temperature) production methods existed, but manufacturing at scale was limited. Most production came from a small number of specialised facilities in the United States, Israel, and parts of Asia.
Buyers who purchased in 2020 got a genuine discount from mined diamond pricing. What they could not have anticipated was how quickly the market was about to change.
What Drove the Price Decline Between 2020 and 2025
The price decline that followed was structural, not cyclical. Several factors compounded to create one of the fastest pricing collapses seen in any gemstone category.
Manufacturing scaled faster than demand
From 2020 onward, manufacturers in India and China invested heavily in CVD and HPHT reactor capacity. Production volumes increased by over 300 percent between 2020 and 2023. The technology improved simultaneously — larger reactors, faster cycle times, better gas management — which meant more carats could be produced from the same equipment at lower cost per stone.
Production costs fell to a floor
The actual cost to grow a one-carat rough diamond dropped from approximately $300 to $400 USD per carat in 2022 to under $100 USD per carat by 2025. When factoring in cutting, polishing, certification and logistics, the total cost to bring a finished, IGI certified one-carat stone to market settled at roughly $100 to $150 USD per carat.
This cost floor is meaningful. It sets a structural minimum below which prices cannot sustainably fall, because no manufacturer can sell below their cost of production for long.
Supply outpaced demand significantly
The jewellery industry — particularly in the United States, which represents the largest market for diamond jewellery globally — did not absorb the increased supply. Marriage rates declined in major markets. The overall engagement ring category contracted. Inventory-to-sales ratios at jewellery retailers climbed sharply, reaching levels that indicated significant oversupply relative to demand.
The result was a pricing environment where sellers competed aggressively on price. Wholesale lab grown diamond prices, tracked by analyst Edahn Golan, fell by roughly 96 percent from the start of his tracking period in 2018 through to 2025.
Retail prices followed wholesale, but more slowly
Retailers absorbed some of the wholesale decline through increased margins rather than passing all of it to consumers immediately. This meant retail price declines were real but more gradual than the wholesale picture. For buyers, prices appeared to drop consistently year over year through this period, which is what created the expectation that they would keep falling.
The Production Cost Floor — Why the Decline Slowed
By late 2024 and into 2025, several things changed that are relevant to understanding where prices sit today.
Producers exited the market
Approximately 40 percent of lab grown diamond producers left the market between 2023 and 2024. Smaller manufacturers, unable to compete on price with larger industrial producers, could not sustain operations. This reduction in the number of active producers naturally reduced the rate of supply growth.
Output was cut
Remaining manufacturers reduced production by an estimated 35 percent in late 2024. When producers that previously ran reactors at full capacity began pulling back, the volume of new diamonds entering the market slowed.
The rate of price decline slowed measurably
Industry data tracked the quarterly rate of wholesale price decline falling to 4.7 percent in 2025 — the smallest quarterly decline recorded since lab grown diamonds entered the mainstream market. The year-on-year retail price change in early 2026 was recorded at approximately 2.59 percent, compared to annual declines of 30 to 40 percent in the years prior.
These numbers describe a market that is still declining, but marginally. The scale of change is fundamentally different from the 2021 to 2024 period.
The cost floor creates a structural limit
With production costs at roughly $100 to $150 USD per carat for a finished certified stone, prices cannot fall significantly further without manufacturers operating at a loss. Unlike a natural resource that can theoretically be extracted at a profit regardless of market price (up to a point), lab grown diamonds have a fixed and calculable production cost. That cost sets a floor.
Where Lab-Grown Diamond Prices Sit in Australia in 2026
Converting current market pricing to Australian dollars and accounting for local retail margins, a broad indication of the current pricing range looks like this:
A one-carat round brilliant lab grown diamond with G colour, VS2 clarity, and an excellent cut currently retails in the $1,200 to $2,000 AUD range depending on the retailer, certification standard, and setting. For comparison, a one-carat mined diamond of comparable grade retails in the $7,000 to $9,000 AUD range.
For solitaire necklace purposes — which typically use smaller stones than engagement rings — the pricing picture is proportionally similar. The question of "what does a lab grown diamond solitaire necklace cost in Australia" is answered by the stone grade, the metal quality, and the retailer's pricing model.
Bellari's lab grown diamond solitaire necklaces use IGI certified stones set in solid 18K gold, with pieces ranging from $1,840 to $2,090 AUD. The price reflects the cost of the certified stone, the solid gold setting, and the made to order production process.
The lab grown diamond solitaire necklace collection is available in four cuts — round brilliant, oval, pear, and emerald — in both 18K yellow gold and 18K white gold.
The "Wait or Buy" Question — What the Data Shows
Buyers who followed the lab grown diamond price story from 2020 onward watched a sustained, significant decline and reasonably wondered whether it would continue.
The honest answer, based on the available data from 2025 and 2026, is that the structural conditions that drove the decline have largely resolved. Production has consolidated. Output has been reduced. The cost floor has been reached. The rate of decline has slowed to levels that are marginal rather than dramatic.
This does not mean prices will not move at all. Markets rarely stay perfectly stable. But the conditions for another 40 or 70 percent annual decline — which required a perfect combination of new supply flooding the market, demand failing to keep pace, and production costs actively falling — are not currently in place.
Whether that makes it a good time to buy is a question each buyer answers based on their own circumstances. The data does not suggest that waiting another year is likely to produce the same savings that waiting from 2021 to 2023 would have.
What a buyer in 2026 is looking at is a market where lab grown diamonds are priced at roughly 80 to 85 percent below comparable mined diamonds, at a point where the technology cost curve has flattened. The question of "should I wait for prices to fall further" is a different one to "should I wait for another big drop like the ones that already happened."
What the Price History Means for Lab-Grown Diamond Value
One point that frequently appears in discussions about lab grown diamond pricing is the question of resale value.
Lab grown diamonds do not hold value in the way that some buyers might expect. The resale market is limited, and a stone purchased at retail will not return retail value if sold. This is not unique to lab grown diamonds — jewellery broadly loses a significant portion of its retail value in a private resale context — but it is more pronounced for lab grown stones because the underlying production cost is known and the trajectory of that cost has been public.
A buyer who paid $3,000 USD for a one-carat lab grown diamond in 2020 and tries to resell it today would not recover that price. The production cost of a comparable stone today is a fraction of what it was.
This is relevant context for buyers who approach a diamond purchase as an investment or store of value. Lab grown diamonds are best understood as consumer goods — jewellery purchased for its material qualities and its meaning to the wearer, not as a financial instrument.
This position is consistent with how Bellari presents both product lines. The lab grown diamond and the moissanite ranges are presented as distinct materials with distinct properties and distinct price points. Neither is framed as an investment. Both are jewellery.
IGI Certification and Why It Matters for a 2026 Purchase
In a market where lab grown diamond prices declined rapidly, certification became more important rather than less so.
As prices fell, some producers began cutting corners on grading — submitting stones to less rigorous laboratories or self-grading without independent verification. A stone listed as D colour, VVS1 clarity from an uncertified source may not meet those grades when independently assessed.
IGI certification — from the International Gemological Institute — provides an independent grade on cut, colour, clarity, and carat weight, with explicit confirmation that the stone is laboratory grown. The certificate number is laser-inscribed on the stone girdle, which means the certificate can be matched to the specific stone.
For a buyer purchasing a lab grown diamond necklace in 2026, the certification is not a formality. It is the documentation that confirms what the stone is and how it grades.
Bellari's guide to IGI certified diamonds covers the grading system in detail, including what each grade means and how to verify a certificate at igi.org.
The Four Cuts — A Brief Note on Cut and Price
Within the lab grown diamond solitaire necklace category, the cut of the stone affects the price to a degree but the primary variable is the stone's carat weight and grade.
The round brilliant is the most precisely calculated of all diamond cuts. It has the most standardised cutting parameters, which makes it the most consistently graded and the most commonly produced. This also makes it the most competitive in terms of pricing at the wholesale level.
Fancy cuts — oval, pear, emerald — are not necessarily more expensive than round brilliants, but the cutting process is more variable. An oval or pear cut that is poorly proportioned will be noticeably less bright than a well-cut stone of the same dimensions. This is where cut grade matters most.
For solitaire necklace purposes, the difference between the four available cuts in the Bellari range is primarily aesthetic. The stone grades, the gold quality, and the certification standard are consistent across all four options.
The oval diamond necklace guide and the pear diamond necklace guide cover the specific characteristics of those cuts in detail.
How the Australian Dollar Affects Lab-Grown Diamond Pricing
Pricing for lab grown diamonds at the production level is denominated in USD. Australian buyers purchasing from Australian retailers pay AUD, but the underlying cost of the stone is USD-referenced.
When the Australian dollar weakens against the USD, AUD prices for the same diamond tend to rise, or retailers absorb the currency cost. When the Australian dollar is stronger, the inverse applies.
This is a practical note for buyers comparing prices across different time periods or across retailers who source from different markets. A price quoted in AUD in early 2025 and the same stone quoted in AUD in late 2025 may reflect both supply-side changes and currency movements.
Lab-Grown Diamond Pricing in Context: A Summary
The price decline from 2020 to 2025 was structural and driven by supply scaling faster than demand while production costs actively fell. That combination has unwound. Production consolidated, costs reached a floor, and the quarterly rate of decline is now a fraction of what it was.
Buyers in Australia in 2026 are purchasing at prices that are roughly 80 to 85 percent below comparable mined diamonds and at a point where the conditions for another large decline are not present in the same way they were in prior years.
The appropriate frame for a lab grown diamond purchase is not as a financial transaction with a future resale calculation — it is as a piece of jewellery with material properties that are identical to a mined diamond, at a price point that reflects where the market has settled.
Bellari's lab grown diamond solitaire necklaces are available in four cuts in solid 18K yellow and white gold, each with an IGI certified stone. Pieces are made to order, designed in Sydney, and priced from $1,840 to $2,090 AUD.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: Have lab-grown diamond prices stopped dropping in Australia? A: The rate of decline has slowed significantly. Data from 2025 and 2026 shows the smallest quarterly price declines recorded since lab grown diamonds entered the mainstream market. The conditions that drove the 2020 to 2025 decline — rapid supply growth, falling production costs, and oversupply — have partially resolved through producer consolidation and output reduction. Prices are not guaranteed to be static, but the structural case for another large decline is not as clear as it was in prior years.
Q: Why did lab-grown diamond prices fall so much? A: Production capacity, primarily in India and China, scaled by over 300 percent between 2020 and 2023. At the same time, the actual cost to grow a diamond in a laboratory fell from $300 to $400 per carat in 2022 to under $100 per carat by 2025. Supply grew far faster than demand, and producers competed aggressively on price. The result was a decline of approximately 88 percent at retail from 2020 to 2025.
Q: Is now a good time to buy a lab-grown diamond necklace in Australia? A: The data from 2025 and 2026 shows price declines slowing to marginal levels. Whether that represents a good time to buy depends on the individual buyer's circumstances and what they are buying for. The conditions for the large annual declines seen between 2021 and 2024 are not currently present.
Q: Do lab-grown diamonds hold their value? A: The resale market for lab grown diamonds is limited. A stone purchased at retail will not return retail value if sold. This applies to jewellery broadly, but is more pronounced for lab grown diamonds because production costs are known and have been publicly declining. Lab grown diamonds are best understood as consumer goods purchased for their material and personal significance, not as financial instruments.
Q: How much does a lab-grown diamond necklace cost in Australia in 2026? A: For a one-carat round brilliant lab grown diamond with standard quality grades, retail pricing in Australia currently falls broadly in the $1,200 to $2,000 AUD range, depending on the retailer, the metal, and the certification standard. Bellari's IGI certified lab grown diamond solitaire necklaces in solid 18K gold are priced from $1,840 to $2,090 AUD.
Q: What is the production cost floor for lab-grown diamonds? A: The cost of growing a one-carat rough diamond in a laboratory now sits at under $100 USD per carat. When adding the costs of cutting, polishing, independent certification, and logistics, the total cost to bring a finished certified stone to market is roughly $100 to $150 USD per carat. This sets a structural minimum below which prices cannot sustainably fall.
Q: What is the difference between lab-grown diamond prices at wholesale and retail? A: Wholesale lab grown diamond prices declined more sharply than retail prices between 2020 and 2025. Retailers absorbed some of the wholesale cost reduction through increased margins rather than passing the full decline to consumers. For buyers, this means retail prices fell consistently but more gradually than wholesale data might suggest.
Q: Does IGI certification matter when buying a lab-grown diamond? A: Yes. As lab grown diamond prices fell, some producers reduced quality controls or used less rigorous grading. An IGI certificate provides independent confirmation of the stone's cut, colour, clarity, carat weight, and laboratory grown origin. The certificate number is laser-inscribed on the stone, which means it can be matched to the specific piece at igi.org.
