Lab-Grown vs Natural Diamonds: Are Lab-Grown Diamonds Real?

Both are diamonds. A lab-grown diamond and a natural diamond are both carbon in a diamond crystal structure, so they have the same hardness and the same diamond sparkle when they are cut to the same standard.

Both are judged on quality and origin by independent grading labs. Natural diamonds and most lab-grown diamonds are described through the 4Cs, the cut, colour, clarity and carat weight, although GIA now rates lab-grown diamonds as Premium or Standard instead.

You will often see this searched as lab-grown vs real diamonds, or as man-made, manufactured, synthetic or engineered diamonds against real ones. That framing is a little off, because a lab-grown diamond is a real diamond, and all of those names describe the same stone. The comparison that actually holds up is lab-grown against natural, or mined, and that is what the rest of this page works through.

Lab-grown diamonds are not diamond lookalikes. Moissanite and cubic zirconia are different materials with different optical and physical properties. A grading report identifies a diamond as laboratory-grown or natural, and specialist equipment can distinguish the growth origin even though the two look alike to the unaided eye.

Origin changes the story, the supply chain and the price. Natural diamonds form underground over a very long time and are recovered through mining, while lab-grown diamonds start with a diamond seed and grow above ground using HPHT or CVD technology.

Origin can also change how you feel about the ring itself. Some buyers love the idea of a stone that formed underground, while others would rather have a diamond with no mining behind it, and the budget room that leaves for a bigger centre stone or a more detailed setting.

A short video walkthrough of how natural diamonds, lab-grown diamonds and moissanite differ in material, sparkle and origin.

Lab-grown diamonds cost much less than a natural diamond of the same size and grade. The ABC reports they are 30 to 70 per cent cheaper per carat than natural diamonds, which can free up room for a larger stone, a better cut or a more detailed setting inside the same budget.

The gap keeps widening because lab-grown prices keep falling. De Beers said in May 2025 that lab-grown diamond prices in the jewellery sector had fallen 90% at wholesale, and JCK reported in August 2026 that wholesale prices fell another 26% in 2025.

Resale is where the two differ most. A Jewellers Association of Australia spokesperson told the ABC that lab-grown diamonds have negligible resale value, leaving mainly the value of the gold or platinum in the setting. Natural diamonds have the more established resale market, though even a natural diamond usually sells secondhand for less than you paid. Buy a lab-grown diamond for the ring you want to wear, not as an investment.

If you want to dig into the value side of this, read do lab-grown diamonds hold their value?

There is no Australian law written only for lab-grown diamonds, but the Australian Consumer Law bans misleading or deceptive conduct, including misleading claims about what a product is. The ACCC's guidance on jewellery advertising says "laboratory created" is unlikely to be misleading for a lab-made diamond, that "cultured" risks being misleading, and that failing to disclose that a gemstone is not natural is likely to breach the law.

The Jewellers Association of Australia's code of conduct, which binds the jewellers who sign it, reserves the word diamond on its own for natural diamonds, and requires a lab-made stone to be described as a laboratory-grown, laboratory-created or synthetic diamond. Check that one of those terms appears on the invoice and the grading report.

Quality varies just as much in both. A lab-grown diamond can have a poor cut, visible inclusions or a colour undertone, and a natural diamond can have all the same issues. The grading report gives you a starting point, and from there the exact stone still needs to be judged on its own.

Put cut first. Colour and clarity are best chosen alongside the diamond shape, the size and the setting metal, since they all affect how the stone reads. A well-cut G colour VS2 can make a better ring than a higher-grade diamond that returns light poorly.

Use the 4Cs guide and the certification guide while you compare reports.