Princess Cuts Are the Most Undervalued Shape in the Market Right Now

Two natural princess cut diamonds appeared this week at prices that stopped me mid scroll. A 1.51ct D colour stone at $2,030 and another at $2,410. The median price per carat for that category sits at $7,823. That's 83% and 80% below median, respectively. Not a typo.

Princess cuts have always been the quiet achiever of the diamond world. They don't get the Instagram love that ovals and cushions attract. They don't carry the prestige premium of a round brilliant. And that relative obscurity is precisely what makes them interesting right now, because the pricing reflects neglect more than it reflects quality.

The shape nobody's fighting over

Across our database of 14.7 million natural diamond listings, princess cuts trade at an average of $5,109. Compare that to rounds at $8,978, ovals at $8,286, or even pears at $8,680. Princess is the cheapest of the major fancy shapes by a wide margin, sitting 43% below the round brilliant average.

That discount isn't new. Princess cuts have always been less expensive per carat than rounds because the cutting process wastes less rough material. But what is new is the size of the gap relative to other fancy shapes. Emerald cuts average $7,918. Marquise averages $8,017. Cushions sit at $7,547. Princess has fallen behind all of them.

The lab grown market tells a similar story. Lab princess cuts average $1,126, which is competitive with most other shapes. But the gap between natural and lab grown princess is just 78%. That's the smallest gap of any shape we track.

Shape	Natural Avg	Lab Grown Avg	Price Gap
Marquise	$8,017	$978	87.8%
Pear	$8,680	$1,152	86.7%
Emerald	$7,918	$1,097	86.1%
Radiant	$7,878	$1,130	85.7%
Round	$8,978	$1,818	79.7%
Princess	$5,109	$1,126	78.0%

A 78% gap means natural princess cuts are, relatively speaking, holding their value better against lab grown competition than any other shape. If you're buying natural and care about long term value retention, princess is the safest bet in the current market.

Where $2,000 buys a D colour 1.5 carat

Those two exceptional value signals deserve unpacking. A natural 1.51ct D colour princess at $2,030 works out to $1,344 per carat. The median for that category is $7,823 per carat. Even if you assume the stone has lower clarity (the signal doesn't specify), that kind of discount on a D colour stone of that size is unusual.

The second stone at $2,410 ($1,596 per carat) is still 80% below the category median. Both of these are outliers, obviously. You won't find that pricing every day. But they illustrate a broader pattern: the princess cut market has enough pricing inefficiency that genuinely good deals surface more frequently than in round or oval categories, where competition among buyers is fiercer and retailers price more aggressively.

For context, a natural 1.5ct round in D colour would typically start around $12,000 to $15,000 depending on clarity and cut. The idea of finding one at $2,000 is fantasy. In princess cuts, it apparently happened twice this week.

The cross retailer game

Lab grown princess cuts present their own opportunity, though for a completely different reason. Cross retailer price spreads on lab grown princess cuts average 201%, with about 47% of inventory appearing at multiple retailers.

That means the exact same physical diamond (same certificate number, same stone) is listed at one retailer for, say, $800 and at another for $2,400. The average spread of 201% implies the expensive listing is roughly triple the price of the cheapest one.

Lab Grown Shape	Cross Retailer %	Avg Spread
Radiant	49.1%	253.9%
Emerald	48.6%	242.1%
Pear	45.1%	227.1%
Round	62.4%	213.8%
Cushion	46.6%	213.6%
Princess	47.2%	201.1%

Princess actually has the lowest average spread among the major shapes, which tells you that retailer pricing on princess cuts is slightly more rational than on, say, radiants (254% spread). But a 201% average spread still means you can save a third of the price just by checking whether another retailer carries the same stone. This is exactly what CaratHunter's cross retailer comparison was built for.

Who's cheap, who's expensive, and who's honest

Retailer pricing data reveals some sharp differences. Blue Nile carries 29,380 active listings with an average markup of negative 12.5%, meaning they consistently price below the market median. Lukhi Diamond runs even lower at negative 15%. On the other end, Temple and Grace averages a 168% markup, and Grown Brilliance sits at 28%.

James Allen, the largest single retailer in our database at 136,399 listings, runs a 53% average markup. That premium partly reflects their Camoufox browser experience and branding, but it also means you're paying meaningfully more for the same certified stone compared to a retailer like Blue Nile.

For princess cuts specifically, the value play is straightforward. Start with retailers known for competitive pricing on certified inventory. Blue Nile, Lukhi Diamond, and the Nivoda sourced retailers (which share supplier inventory at varying markups) tend to offer the lowest per carat prices. Then use cross retailer matching to verify you're not overpaying.

If you're shopping for a natural princess and the retailer doesn't show up in any cross retailer comparisons, that's actually fine. About half of princess inventory is unique to a single retailer. Just compare the per carat price against the category median on CaratHunter to make sure you're in the right ballpark.

The quality vs value question

Princess cuts present an interesting tension between quality score and value score. Because the shape is less popular, retailers don't always stock the best cut grades. You'll see more "Good" and "Very Good" cuts in princess than in round, where the market demands Excellent or Ideal.

This matters because a poorly cut princess can look notably worse than a poorly cut round. The large table facet on a princess makes inclusions more visible, and a shallow cut loses brilliance quickly. My advice: don't chase the absolute cheapest per carat price if it means dropping below Very Good cut. The savings aren't worth the visual compromise.

For natural princess cuts in the 1.00 to 1.99ct range, here's where I'd set the floor:

Spec	Minimum	Ideal
Cut	Very Good	Excellent
Colour	H	F to G
Clarity	VS2	VS1
Table	65% to 75%	67% to 72%
Depth	64% to 75%	68% to 72%

Stay within those ranges and you'll have a stone that performs well visually. Go below them to save $500 and you'll notice the difference every time it catches the light.

For lab grown, the calculus shifts. Since you're already saving 78% compared to natural, there's no reason to compromise on quality. Buy the best cut, best colour, and best clarity you can find in your carat range, then use cross retailer matching to find the cheapest listing for that specific stone. A D VVS1 Excellent cut lab grown princess at 1.5ct might run $1,800 to $3,500 depending on the retailer. That same stone in natural would be north of $15,000.

What the broader market is doing

Natural diamonds rose an average of $25 per listing over the past seven days, while lab grown moved up about $4. The big movers were all at the high end of the natural market: 5 to 10ct Asscher cuts in D to E VVS jumped $2,325, and large marquise and oval categories followed. This is institutional and collector money moving, not engagement ring buyers.

Supply shifts favoured natural cushions and pears in the sub 1.25ct range, with new inventory slightly outpacing delistings. Lab grown round supply in the 1.50 to 1.99ct range saw heavy churn (184 new listings against 198 delistings in a week), which suggests active inventory cycling rather than net growth.

None of this directly impacts the princess cut category in a material way. And that's partly the point. Princess cuts sit in a quieter corner of the market where institutional trends and social media hype create less pricing distortion. That stability is a feature if you're a buyer who wants a fair price without racing against other shoppers.

My recommendation

Buy a natural princess cut if you can find one with Excellent or Very Good cut, F to H colour, and VS2 or better clarity in the 1.00 to 1.99ct range. The category is structurally underpriced relative to every other major shape. The 78% lab grown gap tells you that natural princess retains more of its value relative to the synthetic alternative than any other shape, which matters if resale or long term value is part of your thinking.

If you care purely about size and sparkle per dollar, buy a lab grown princess and use cross retailer search to find the lowest price for the exact certified stone you want. A 201% average spread means someone is selling your diamond for a third of what someone else is charging. Don't be the buyer who pays triple.

Skip Temple and Grace for this category (168% average markup). Start with Blue Nile or the Nivoda sourced retailers for price competitive certified inventory. And whatever you do, don't drop below Very Good cut just to save a few hundred dollars. A princess cut lives and dies by its cut quality, and the savings aren't worth the compromise.

The two D colour 1.51ct stones at $2,000 and $2,400 won't last. But stones like them will keep appearing, because the market hasn't figured out that princess cuts are this cheap. When it does, you'll wish you bought earlier.