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

Five shapes, five different stories

Radiant lab-grown diamonds trade at $370 per carat. Their natural equivalents sit at $2,631. That's an 85.9% discount, the widest gap of any fancy cut we track across 14 million active listings. Hearts, by contrast, show only a 75.8% spread. Ten 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	$1,968	$411	79.1%	933,048
Marquise	$2,048	$375	81.7%	467,192
Heart	$2,091	$506	75.8%	320,548
Cushion	$2,562	$420	83.6%	575,477
Radiant	$2,631	$370	85.9%	533,974

Radiant leads. At $370 per carat for lab-grown and $2,631 for natural, it offers the steepest drop of anything on this list. Cushion follows at 83.6%. Both outpace the Round brilliant's 80.9% discount, which tells you something about where manufacturers are pushing volume in the lab-grown space.

Hearts and Pears cluster at the bottom. The 75.8% and 79.1% 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 $2,562 per carat median, natural cushions look more expensive than Rounds ($2,023), but that figure is slightly misleading. Cushions in our dataset of 143,160 natural stones tend to cluster in higher colour and clarity grades, pulling the median up. The lab-grown story is clearer: $420 per carat, barely above the Round's $387, delivering an 83.6% discount.

For buyers who want maximum face up size at minimum cost, lab-grown cushions are hard to argue against. They're cheaper per carat than lab-grown Ovals ($409) despite offering similar visual spread, and there's enormous selection with over 432,000 lab-grown cushions actively listed. Cushion cut lab vs natural pricing consistently rewards the patient shopper.

Radiants push even further. The $370 lab-grown median is the lowest of any major fancy shape. Not Marquise ($375). Not Pear ($411). Radiant. And the natural starting point of $2,631 is the highest on this list, creating that record 85.9% gap. 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 $1,968 per carat (Pear) or $2,048 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 $411 per carat for pear shape lab grown diamonds and $375 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	286,549	646,499	69.3%
Marquise	81,881	385,311	82.5%
Heart	127,826	192,722	60.1%
Cushion	143,160	432,317	75.1%
Radiant	78,730	455,244	85.3%

Marquise is particularly striking. Lab-grown stones make up 82.5% of all Marquise listings in our index. That's massive manufacturing volume relative to natural supply, and it explains why the lab-grown marquise diamond price ($375/ct) has been driven so low. Pear shape lab grown diamonds show a similar pattern at 69.3% 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 $2,048 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 75.8% is the lowest of any fancy shape we track. Nearly six percentage points below Marquise. A full ten points below Radiant. The lab-grown median sits at $506 per carat, meaningfully higher than the $370 to $420 range that Cushion, Radiant, Marquise, and Pear occupy.

The reason is cutting difficulty. 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 192,722 lab-grown Hearts versus 432,317 lab-grown Cushions. Supply is genuinely constrained relative to demand.

For natural Hearts, the $2,091 median per carat is surprisingly moderate (lower than Cushion's $2,562 and Radiant's $2,631). 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 $2,091 figure.

The buyer implication: if you want a Heart shape, lab-grown still saves you 75.8%. 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)	Radiant	$370/ct median, lowest of all fancies
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	$375/ct with 385,000+ stones to choose from
Classic fancy shape, large selection	Pear	646,499 lab-grown options at $411/ct
Sentimental or unique shape	Heart	Higher at $506/ct but still 75.8% below natural

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, Radiant at 85.9% off natural pricing is the market's most aggressive discount in fancy cuts. You're essentially buying the same chemical and optical properties as a $2,631 per carat natural stone for $370.

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 83.6% 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

Radiant's 85.9% discount is the widest gap of any shape outside Baguettes (89.2%, which is a speciality cut with minimal consumer demand). We're monitoring whether Radiant lab-grown prices have bottomed out at $370 per carat or if increased manufacturing competition pushes them lower. At some point, cutting costs set a floor. We may be approaching it.

Marquise manufacturing volume continues to surprise. With 385,311 lab-grown stones and only 81,881 naturals, the lab-grown market essentially is the Marquise market now. Over 82% of all Marquise diamonds in circulation are lab-grown. If you're considering a Marquise engagement ring, that reality should shape your expectations and your budget.

Hearts remain the outlier worth watching. The 75.8% discount could narrow further if fewer manufacturers invest in the shape, or it could widen if automation improves symmetry consistency in lab-grown production. It's the one fancy cut where scarcity still matters.