More carats at a lower price sounds like a great deal. That’s why many couples are choosing lab-grown diamonds over natural mined diamonds for their engagement rings. Plus, there’s a perception lab-grown diamonds are better for the environment.
For the first time ever, more than half of couples reported their engagement ring features a lab-grown stone, according to The Knot’s 2025 Real Weddings Study. Lab-grown diamonds have grown increasingly popular in the past several years, with 6% more couples buying them than last year and 40% more since 2019.
“The increasing popularity of lab-grown diamonds can be attributed to being conscious of budget, perceived value and ethical production practices,” Lauren Kay, executive editor at The Knot, told Fortune. They’re “a great and viable option for those unwilling to sacrifice stone size due to budget constraints.”
Since lab-grown stones are typically cheaper than natural diamonds and there’s been such a massive increase in the number of lab-grown diamonds purchased, engagement ring prices are down, according to The Knot, which found the current average price is $5,200, a 5.7% drop from 2023 and a more than 15% decline from 2021.
And in some cases, ring purchasers could expect to spend 1.5 times more on a natural diamond ring than a lab-grown one.
“Design is absolutely the most important aspect of your purchase decision on a product—and the second criterion is price,” Alexander Lacik, CEO of jewelry giant Pandora previously toldFortune’s Orianna Rosa Royle.
Younger generations, specifically, find it less important for the stone to be natural (22% for Gen Z, 28% for millennials), Kay said.
Natural diamond producers have tried to keep up with the lab-grown diamond craze. In late 2024, De Beers, the world’s biggest producer of natural diamonds, slashed its prices by 10% to 15%.
“The massive success of lab-grown diamonds has reduced prices for natural stones well beyond what the mining industry had expected, driven largely by consumers who want more affordable options,” according to a report by McKinsey & Co., which also called lab-grown diamonds “likely the biggest challenge facing diamond producers today.”
Still, ring buyers can get a bigger stone for their buck when choosing a lab-grown diamond. The average center-stone weight for lab-grown diamond rings in 2024 was 2.0 carats, compared to 1.6 carats for natural diamonds, Kay said. Meanwhile, the average carat weight of an engagement ring in 2021 was 1.5 carats, which jumped to 1.7 in 2024, according to The Knot.
“Customers—when it comes to the bridal engagement space—are opting for spending the same or similar amount of money, but for a significantly larger stone,” Lacik said. “Women like bigger stones. That’s the way the world works, whether we like it or not.”
Are lab-grown diamonds sustainable?
Although lab-grown diamonds have been touted as a more environmentally friendly option—which appeals to younger generations—they’re not exactly green. Producing these stones requires subjecting carbon to high pressure and high temperatures over several weeks. It’s an energy-intensive process, Ulrika D’Haenens-Johansson, senior manager of diamond research at the Gemological Institute of America, told ABC News, and most lab-grown diamond producers use electricity from fossil fuels, including coal.
More than 60% of lab-grown diamonds are produced in regions where coal is the primary source, according to the International Diamond Center (IDC). China and India are two of the largest lab-grown diamond producers and rely on coal-fired power plants to produce the gems. This results in a “high level of greenhouse gas emissions associated with lab-grown diamonds, which challenges the perception that they are a more sustainable option,” according to IDC.
However, the International Grown Diamond Association claims lab-grown diamonds “do not lead to ecological damage.” Depending on production methods, lab-grown diamonds can have a much smaller footprint than natural diamonds, watchmaking experts toldThe New York Times.
But at the end of the day, “environment doesn’t matter” to the consumer, Paul Zimnisky, a New York diamond analyst, told NYT. “Consumers don’t care about that as much as the media talks about it. Consumers are buying lab diamonds because they’re so cheap. It’s all about the price.”
A version of this story appeared on Fortune.com on March 11, 2025.
