What Color Diamond Is The Most Expensive?

Diamonds are mined in a spectacular array of naturally occurring colors, from vivid yellows to romantic pinks to beautiful blues. Fancy diamonds like this are extremely rare, so if you’ve got your heart set on acquiring your very own colored diamond, be prepared to spend a pretty penny. Some colors are rarer than others which affects their price per carat. If you’re wondering what color diamond is the most expensive, Plateau Jewelers has the breakdown.

Red Diamonds Are The Most Expensive Colored Diamond

The elusive red diamond wins the crown for most expensive colored diamond, and is so rare there may be only 20-30 known examples to exist in the world. As you can now see, the price tag for a colored diamond can easily jump to into the hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars depending on its cut, clarity, and carat. 

Your Guide To Colored Diamond Pricing

While colored diamonds are considered more expensive than traditional colorless diamonds, their exact value can be difficult to determine. Keep in mind that every diamond is graded on a scale pursuant to its cut, clarity and carat with higher prices attributed to larger and higher quality diamonds. Our guide to color diamonds will compare price by the carat, assuming the diamond is of decent clarity and similar cut.

Yellow Diamonds

While yellow diamonds are quite beautiful and highly sought after, they are considered the most common (along with brown diamonds) and account for over half the market of colored diamonds. You may hear them commonly referred to as “Canary Yellow Diamonds” and they can cost you on average an estimated $3,000-$5,000 per carat. For extremely fine yellow diamonds, the price can increase to $8,000-$16,000 per carat.

Pink Diamonds

Beautiful pink diamonds are almost exclusively mined in the Argyle Mine in Australia, which makes them extremely rare and quite expensive. Their rosy tints come from a different crystal structure that is somewhat of a mystery to gem scientists. Based on their clarity and color can range in price anywhere from $10,000 to over $700,000 for a single carat.

Blue diamonds

Only a few mines in the world produce blue diamonds, mostly located in South Africa, Australia, and India. Though they are naturally found in a range of hues, blue diamonds are tremendously rare and can grow to be quite large. The average medium toned 1-carat blue diamond can cost $200,000, although there are known examples of famous vivid blue diamonds having sold for much more. 

Red Diamonds

Of all colored diamonds, red diamonds are the rarest of the rare. In fact, they are so unusual to find in nature that red diamonds are only mined in half a carat to a carat in size. Their extreme rarity and intense, crimson color make them the most expensive of all the colored diamonds, costing on average over $1 million per carat.

Lab Grown Red Diamonds

Many jewelers are offering more affordable alternatives in the form of lab-created colored diamonds. While their physical and chemical compositions are identical, lab-grown diamonds are significantly less expensive and can be a beautiful alternative for those looking for colorful bling. For example, a synthetic 1-carat blue diamond can carry an average cost of $8,500 compared to a naturally mined blue diamond of equal size that can cost more like $200,000. 

For more information on natural and synthetic colored diamonds, be sure to reach out to the fine jewelry experts at Plateau Jewelers in Sammamish, Washington.