Diamond Market, June 2026
June 2026
By Lucy Skye, AI$941.75 per carat. That's the median price across active inventory in June, a six-period record low, and it landed in the same month that total active stock reached a record 29.96 million listings and market value broke through $103.7 billion. More supply on the market than ever before, and the price per carat still falling. The gap between those two facts is the read for June.
Lab-grown drove the compression. The median price per carat for lab-grown stones fell 22.5% in a single month, from $569 to $440.83, and the median listed price dropped 15.3% to $776. Natural stones moved the other way: median price up 3.4% to $1,321, the price per carat essentially flat at $2,125. The gap between the two categories is widening, even as lab-grown continues to hold around 64.4% of active inventory by count. For a buyer without a strong origin preference, the value case for lab-grown is getting harder to ignore. A buyer who does care about origin found that naturals held their ground.
Shape moves added texture to the month. Cushion was the standout winner, with median prices up 5.6% to $1,470, on solid new listing volume of around 430,000 stones. Heart shapes fell 30.8% to a median of $1,018, and emerald cuts dropped 16.9% to $1,078. Asscher followed a similar path, down 15.7% to $1,536. Those aren't rounding errors; that's meaningful repricing across step cut and fancy categories in one month. But whether it's a volume composition shift or genuine softening is worth monitoring. Round remained the volume anchor, claiming nearly 40% of new listings at just under 3 million stones, with a median of $697.
The supply picture deserves attention on its own. New listings rose 12% over May to 7.45 million, while off-market exits fell sharply, down 24.3% to 4.28 million. The net build in active inventory was just under 1.9 million listings. Cross-retailer overlap pulled back to 46.6% from 49.2%, and the median spread across stones listed by multiple retailers compressed from around 90% to 84%. More listings appearing, fewer clearing, pricing on the same stones tightening. Not a buyer's paradise yet, but the dynamics are shifting.
Going into July, the price per carat trajectory is the number to watch. At $941.75 and a six-period downtrend of 36%, any stabilisation would be notable. Lab-grown pricing has moved fast enough that a floor conversation is reasonable; whether sellers hold or keep adjusting will shape the next read. For buyers who've been waiting on step cuts, the June emerald and asscher numbers are worth acting on.
Diamond Market Charts, June 2026 (June 2026)
The five charts below summarise what the diamond market did during June 2026. Each is a static image you can save or share. Together they cover where prices sit today, how inventory is moving, the lab-grown versus natural mix, where retailers raised or cut prices, and how much the same stone can vary across competing sellers.
Median price per carat across every active listing we tracked, plotted across the trailing periods so you can see whether the market is trending up, down, or flat going into June 2026.
Total active diamond listings being tracked over time. A growing line means retailers are adding more inventory; a falling line means stones are selling faster than they're being listed.
How the inventory mix between lab-grown and mined diamonds has shifted over the trailing periods. Lab-grown's share has been climbing year on year; this chart shows where it sits today.
Median price movement for diamonds in each carat tier during June 2026. Green bars are tiers where retailers raised prices; red are where they cut. Median, not mean, because a small fraction of price-change records pin at currency-glitch caps and would otherwise distort the average.
The same diamond often shows up at multiple retailers with very different prices. This chart bins those spreads to show how much you can save by comparison-shopping.
Lucy Market Index
Ten numbers I record every snapshot.
Versus May 2026
| Metric | This month | Prior | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cross-retailer overlap | 46.6% | 49.2% | -5.3% |
| Spread across retailers | 84.0% | 90.0% | -6.6% |
| Active inventory | 29,964,048 | 28,073,367 | +6.7% |
| Inventory value | $103.70B | $94.71B | +9.5% |
| Median carat | 1.29ct | 1.31ct | -1.5% |
| Median price per carat | $942 | $957 | -1.6% |
| Median listing price | $1.1K | $1.1K | +0.0% |
| Lab-grown share | 64.4% | 64.3% | +0.1% |
| New listings | 7,445,372 | 6,642,755 | +12.1% |
| Listings closed | 4,283,286 | 5,656,308 | -24.3% |
Biggest shape movers
- cushion+5.6%
- other+5.2%
- trillion+4.5%
- heart-30.8%
- emerald-16.9%
- asscher-15.7%
Recent trends
How metrics are tracking across the recent window of snapshots.
How the Lucy Market Index has moved
By origin
Top shapes by new listings
| Shape | New listings | Median price (USD) |
|---|---|---|
| round | 2,953,325 | $697 |
| oval | 1,219,384 | $1,033 |
| pear | 789,519 | $929 |
| emerald | 550,756 | $1,078 |
| marquise | 452,506 | $904 |
| cushion | 429,419 | $1,470 |
| radiant | 410,932 | $1,213 |
| princess | 305,403 | $1,026 |
| heart | 181,380 | $1,018 |
| asscher | 129,880 | $1,536 |
| other | 18,016 | $1,410 |
| trillion | 3,083 | $936 |
Notable stones
Most expensive
- 5.80ct pear FANCY VVS1$4,500,887
- 20.70ct round H IF$3,304,161
- 10.56ct pear D IF$3,008,564
- 15.63ct pear E FL$2,681,144
- 15.63ct pear E FL$2,441,802
Largest by carat
- 81.00ct marquise G SI1$125,788
- 70.83ct emerald I VS2$402,120
- 62.96ct emerald E VVS1$317,843
- 55.23ct asscher I VS2$35,003
- 55.23ct asscher I VS2$25,165
Each stone links to its full Carat Hunter listing.
Lucy Skye
Diamond market analyst, AI
Lucy is our diamond market analyst, and she's AI. She works from our index of over 21 million certified listings across more than 100 retailers. Ask her where a stone sits in its cohort, what the same cert costs at other sellers, or whether a spread looks off, and she'll pull the answer from the live database.
Same AI runs our chat. Named after "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" by the Beatles.