Fancy Cut Pricing Reality for Pear, Marquise, Heart, Cushion, and Radiant

Five shapes, five different stories

Cushion lab-grown diamonds trade at $443 per carat. Their natural equivalents sit at $2,687. That's an 83.5% discount, the widest gap of any fancy cut we track across 14 million active listings. Marquise, by contrast, show only a 78.3% spread. Five percentage points might sound academic until you're spending $5,000 on a ring and realise the shape you pick determines whether lab-grown saves you four grand or three.

We mapped the entire lab vs natural pricing landscape in our analysis of the market spread, covering methodology, macro trends, and how Round brilliants anchor the conversation. If you haven't read that piece, start there for context. This post focuses on the five fancy shapes that don't get enough individual attention: Pear, Marquise, Heart, Cushion, and Radiant. They aren't interchangeable. The pricing dynamics, the cutting challenges, and the buyer traps differ shape by shape.

Where each shape actually lands

Shape	Natural $/ct	Lab $/ct	Lab Discount	Active Listings
Pear	$1,908	$378	80.2%	1,163,249
Marquise	$1,932	$420	78.3%	676,488
Heart	$2,122	$368	82.7%	323,948
Cushion	$2,687	$443	83.5%	765,811
Radiant	$2,659	$448	83.2%	613,591

Cushion leads. At $443 per carat for lab-grown and $2,687 for natural, it offers the steepest drop of anything on this list. Radiant follows at 83.2%. Both outpace the Round brilliant's 82.5% discount, which tells you something about where manufacturers are pushing volume in the lab-grown space.

Marquise and Pear cluster at the bottom. The 78.3% and 80.2% discounts are still enormous savings in absolute terms, but they trail the market average. The reasons differ for each shape, and they matter if you're trying to maximise value.

Cushion and Radiant lead the value race

Cushion cuts have always been the budget-conscious buyer's ally in the natural market. At $2,687 per carat median, natural cushions look more expensive than Rounds ($1,933), but that figure is slightly misleading. Cushions in our dataset of 224,603 natural stones tend to cluster in higher colour and clarity grades, pulling the median up. The lab-grown story is clearer: $443 per carat, compared to the Round's $338, delivering an 83.5% discount.

For buyers who want maximum face up size at minimum cost, lab-grown cushions are hard to argue against. Selection is enormous with over 541,000 lab-grown cushions actively listed, and the 83.5% discount holds even as the shape's popularity has grown. Cushion cut lab vs natural pricing consistently rewards the patient shopper.

Radiants follow close behind. The $448 lab-grown median drives an 83.2% discount from a $2,659 natural baseline. If you're comparing a 2ct radiant in G colour VS2 clarity, the lab-grown option will typically land between $600 and $900 total while a comparable natural pushes well past $5,000. Brutal maths for anyone emotionally attached to "natural" in this shape.

We've seen similar dynamics with Ovals, where high demand for lab-grown combined with efficient rough utilisation drives prices to remarkable lows.

The bow tie problem with Pear and Marquise

Pear and Marquise shapes share an optical challenge: the bow tie. It's a dark band running across the centre of elongated brilliant cuts, caused by light leaking through the pavilion rather than reflecting back to the viewer. Every Pear and Marquise has some degree of bow tie. The question is severity, and whether it's visible without magnification.

This matters more for natural diamonds than lab-grown. With natural stones, you're paying $1,908 per carat (Pear) or $1,932 per carat (Marquise). A poorly cut natural Pear with a heavy bow tie still costs real money. Buyers often settle for visible bow ties in naturals because the eye-clean, well-cut examples command premiums that push them out of budget.

Lab-grown changes the calculus entirely. At $378 per carat for pear shape lab grown diamonds and $420 for Marquise, you can afford to be ruthlessly selective. Reject anything with a visible bow tie. Wait for a stone with excellent symmetry and a length to width ratio that minimises the effect (typically 1.45 to 1.55 for Pears, 1.85 to 2.00 for Marquise). The sheer volume of listings means you don't have to compromise.

Shape	Natural Listings	Lab Listings	Lab as % of Total
Pear	436,883	726,366	62.4%
Marquise	188,188	488,300	72.2%
Heart	151,680	172,268	53.2%
Cushion	224,603	541,208	70.7%
Radiant	137,710	475,881	77.6%

Marquise lab-grown stones make up 72.2% of all Marquise listings in our index. That's still substantial manufacturing volume relative to natural supply, and the lab-grown marquise diamond price ($420/ct) reflects a market where both sides have grown. Pear shape lab grown diamonds show a similar pattern at 62.4% lab composition, though natural Pears maintain slightly more market share because the shape remains popular for engagement rings and pendants where buyers still lean natural.

One practical note on marquise diamond price: the natural median of $1,932 per carat can vary enormously by length to width ratio. Very narrow Marquises (2.2:1 and above) often trade at discounts to the median because setting options become limited. If you're buying natural Marquise, the 1.85 to 2.00 range holds its value better.

Hearts and the cost of cutting difficulty

Hearts are strange. The lab-grown discount of 82.7% puts them roughly in line with the group average, but the lab-grown median of $368 per carat is the lowest of any fancy cut on this list. Despite the cutting challenges that keep supply thinner than other shapes, prices have come down sharply.

The reason supply remains constrained is structural. A well-cut Heart requires exceptional symmetry between its two lobes, a clean cleft, and proportions that balance brilliance with recognisable shape. Rough wastage is higher than most other fancies. Fewer manufacturers bother with them, especially at smaller sizes where the shape becomes indistinct. Our index tracks 172,268 lab-grown Hearts versus 541,208 lab-grown Cushions. Supply is genuinely constrained relative to demand.

For natural Hearts, the $2,122 median per carat is surprisingly moderate (lower than Cushion's $2,687 and Radiant's $2,659). But that masks a wide quality distribution. Poorly symmetrical Hearts, ones where the lobes don't match or the cleft is shallow, drag the median down. A genuinely well-cut natural Heart with strong symmetry trades at significant premiums to that $2,122 figure.

The buyer implication: if you want a Heart shape, lab-grown saves you 82.7%. On a 1.5ct stone in the F to G, VS1 to VS2 range, that probably means saving $2,500 to $3,500 depending on specifics. But don't expect the same luxury of choice that Cushion or Radiant buyers enjoy. Selection requires more patience with Hearts.

How to actually use these numbers

Scenario	Best Shape	Why
Maximum carat for minimum spend (lab-grown)	Heart	$368/ct median, lowest lab price of these five shapes
Best face up size at low cost	Cushion or Radiant	Both offer large spread relative to carat weight
Elongated look, selective on cut quality	Marquise	$420/ct with 488,000+ stones to choose from
Classic fancy shape, large selection	Pear	726,366 lab-grown options at $378/ct
Sentimental or unique shape	Heart	$368/ct and 82.7% below natural, though selection is thinner

The discount isn't uniform across these shapes, and that non uniformity should inform your decision. If budget is the primary constraint and you're open to shape, Cushion at 83.5% off natural pricing leads among these five fancy cuts. You're essentially buying the same chemical and optical properties as a $2,687 per carat natural stone for $443.

Selection volume works in your favour for lab-grown across the board. Every shape except Heart has over 385,000 lab-grown listings in our cross-retailer index. Use that depth. Filter aggressively on symmetry, proportions, and (for Pear and Marquise) bow tie severity. At these prices, settling for mediocre cut quality makes no sense.

Cushion cut lab vs natural pricing deserves special attention for budget-conscious buyers. The 83.5% discount combined with the shape's inherent face up size advantage makes it arguably the strongest price-to-quality proposition in the lab-grown market right now. A 2ct cushion in G VS2 can land under $1,000 lab-grown. The same stone in natural pushes past $5,000 easily. You can browse current cushion options in our advanced search to see what's available at specific specs.

What we're watching next

Cushion holds the widest discount of these five shapes at 83.5%, with Baguettes higher still at 90.2% (a speciality cut with minimal consumer demand). Radiant lab-grown prices moved up to $448 per carat in the September 2026 update, a reminder that these discounts aren't a one-way ratchet. The floor is set by cutting costs and rough supply, not just retailer competition.

Marquise manufacturing volume continues to grow. With 488,300 lab-grown stones and 188,188 naturals, lab-grown makes up 72.2% of all Marquise listings in our index. If you're considering a Marquise engagement ring, that reality should shape your expectations and your budget.

Hearts moved sharply in our September 2026 update. The discount widened to 82.7% from a figure that once lagged every other fancy cut, and at $368 per carat the lab-grown Heart is now the cheapest of these five shapes. Supply is still the thinnest here, so the scarcity premium in lab-grown Hearts may not last if manufacturers respond to that price signal.