Yes. Lab grown diamonds are real diamonds.
Real — in the scientific sense, the legal sense, and every practical sense that matters when you're wearing one.
But "yes" is a short answer to a question that deserves a thorough one. Because while the science is settled, there's genuine nuance around grading, pricing, and what "real" actually means for different buyers. This guide covers all of it.
What Makes Any Diamond "Real"?
Before answering whether lab grown diamonds are real, it helps to be precise about what a diamond actually is — because the definition is stricter and simpler than most people realize.
A diamond is defined entirely by its chemistry and structure:
- Chemical composition: Pure carbon (C), with atoms bonded in a face-centered cubic crystal lattice
- Hardness: 10 on the Mohs scale — the maximum, and the hardest naturally occurring material known
- Refractive index: 2.417–2.419, which produces the characteristic brilliance and fire
- Density: 3.51–3.53 g/cm³
- Thermal conductivity: Extremely high — among any material on Earth, which is why diamonds feel cold
Lab grown diamonds satisfy every single one of these criteria — fully, and without qualification.
The confusion arises because people often conflate "diamond" with "naturally formed diamond" — as if origin were part of the mineral's definition. It isn't. Water is water whether it comes from a mountain spring or a filtration system. The molecule doesn't change based on where it formed.
The Science Is Settled
This isn't a close debate in gemological circles. When scientists test a lab grown diamond and a mined diamond side by side, here's what they find:
Visually: Identical. Neither the naked eye nor a jeweler's loupe can distinguish them.
On a diamond tester: Identical. Standard testers check for diamond's characteristic thermal conductivity — lab grown diamonds pass every time, because they have the same thermal conductivity as mined stones.
Under a spectroscope: Identical. The absorption spectrum of a lab grown diamond matches that of a natural diamond precisely.
Chemical analysis: Identical. Pure carbon, cubic lattice, same density, same hardness.
The only instruments that can detect a difference are advanced gemological devices — like GIA's DiamondView — that analyze microscopic growth patterns and nitrogen distribution. These can identify how a diamond was formed (in the Earth vs. in a lab vs. HPHT vs. CVD), but they're looking at origin signatures, not quality differences. The diamond itself hasn't changed.
This is also the scientific community's consensus. Across gemological research, the finding is consistent: lab grown and natural diamonds are the same material, formed through equivalent processes, with indistinguishable end properties.
What U.S. Law Says
In 2018, the Federal Trade Commission updated its Jewelry Guides — the federal guidelines governing how jewelry products must be described in marketing and advertising. The most significant change: the FTC removed the word "natural" from its definition of a diamond.
The revised definition now reads: a diamond is a mineral consisting essentially of pure carbon crystallized in the isometric system.
No mention of origin. No mention of mining. No mention of the Earth. If a stone meets the chemical and structural criteria, it meets the definition.
It's worth being precise about what the ruling does and doesn't say, because this is sometimes overstated in both directions. The FTC did not declare that lab grown diamonds can be marketed simply as "diamonds" without qualification — sellers are still required to clearly disclose that a stone is laboratory-grown, using terms like "laboratory-grown," "laboratory-created," or "man-made." That transparency requirement remains firmly in place.
What the ruling does establish is that lab grown diamonds cannot be legitimately described as fake, inferior, or not real diamonds — because under the FTC's own definition, they satisfy every criterion. At the same time, the FTC also notes that lab grown sellers cannot use unqualified terms like "real," "genuine," or "natural" to describe their own stones without appropriate disclosure. The guides require honesty from all sides.
The GIA has certified lab grown diamonds since 2007, applying the Four Cs grading framework to both lab grown and mined stones — though as we cover in the grading section below, GIA updated its approach to lab grown color and clarity grades in 2025.
Lab Grown vs. Diamond Simulants: A Critical Distinction
One of the most persistent misconceptions is that lab grown diamonds belong in the same category as cubic zirconia or moissanite. The distinction is more fundamental than most people realize:
| Stone | Material | Mohs Hardness | Passes Diamond Tester? | Same as Diamond? |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lab Grown Diamond | Pure carbon | 10 | ✅ Yes | ✅ Yes |
| Natural Diamond | Pure carbon | 10 | ✅ Yes | — |
| Moissanite | Silicon carbide | 9.25 | ⚠️ Sometimes* | ❌ No |
| Cubic Zirconia (CZ) | Zirconium dioxide | 8–8.5 | ❌ No | ❌ No |
| White Sapphire | Aluminum oxide | 9 | ❌ No | ❌ No |
Note: Basic thermal testers may give a false positive for moissanite due to its high thermal conductivity. Advanced testers that also check electrical conductivity will distinguish it correctly.
Lab grown diamonds and natural diamonds are the same material. Everything else on that list is a different material that merely resembles a diamond visually. The distinction is chemical and fundamental — not a matter of degree.
The Type IIa Advantage: Lab Grown Diamonds Are Often Purer
Here's a detail that surprises most people: in a real, measurable sense, many lab grown diamonds are more chemically pure than the average mined diamond.
About 98% of naturally mined diamonds are classified as Type Ia — meaning they contain clusters of nitrogen atoms trapped within their crystal structure during formation. That nitrogen is responsible for the slight yellow or brown tinting in lower color grades and creates characteristic patterns that gemologists can identify.
Most CVD lab grown diamonds are classified as Type IIa — the category with essentially no measurable nitrogen. Type IIa diamonds are the purest, most colorless form of diamond. They represent only about 1–2% of all naturally mined stones, but the CVD growth process — which takes place in a controlled, nitrogen-limited environment — produces them routinely.
The practical result: many lab grown diamonds achieve D, E, and F color grades (colorless) more consistently than mined diamonds. A stone that might have come out slightly warmer in nature comes out clean in a lab, because the conditions were controlled.
This is why the idea that lab grown diamonds are somehow lesser quality simply doesn't hold up. On purity metrics, they're often ahead.
What About Inclusions?
Lab grown diamonds can have inclusions — just like mined diamonds. But the types are slightly different depending on growth method.
CVD diamonds can contain graphite or cloud-like inclusions from the gas phase process. HPHT diamonds can contain tiny metallic particles (iron, nickel, or cobalt) from the flux catalyst used in growth. Natural diamonds typically contain mineral crystals and fractures characteristic of the Earth's mantle environment.
None of these inclusion types affects the appearance of a VS1 or VS2 stone at normal jewelry grades — they're invisible to the naked eye. A well-graded lab grown diamond looks as clean as a well-graded mined diamond, because it is as clean. The certification says so.
GIA Grading Update (2025): What Buyers Should Know
One development worth understanding: in 2025, GIA updated how it grades lab grown diamonds. Rather than issuing individual letter grades for color and clarity (like "F color, VVS2 clarity"), GIA now uses two broader tiers on lab grown reports — "Premium" and "Standard."
GIA's stated reason: the market was treating lab grown 4Cs grades as directly equivalent to natural diamond grades for pricing purposes, which GIA felt was misleading given the different price trajectories of the two markets.
The IGI (International Gemological Institute) took a different position. IGI announced in mid-2025 that it would continue applying full individual 4Cs grades (D/VS1, E/SI2, etc.) to lab grown diamonds, on the basis that the 4Cs system measures physical and optical quality — which applies equally to both stone types.
What this means practically:
- IGI-certified lab grown diamonds still carry individual color and clarity grades
- GIA-certified lab grown diamonds (from mid-2025 onward) will show "Premium" or "Standard" tiers instead
- Carat weight and cut grade remain the same on both
- When shopping, check which lab issued the certificate and which version of report you're looking at
At LabGrownDiamonds.com, we work with certified stones and can walk you through exactly what your certificate means.
So Are They "Worth It"?
This is really what most people are asking when they wonder if lab grown diamonds are real — they want to know if they're getting something genuine or something that will disappoint them.
Here's the honest answer: for beauty, durability, and wearability, lab grown diamonds are absolutely worth it. The brilliance is the same. The hardness is the same. The sparkle on your finger is indistinguishable from a mined stone.
The one area where lab grown and natural diamonds genuinely differ is resale value — and this is worth understanding clearly, because the conventional wisdom gets it somewhat wrong.
The standard line is that natural diamonds "hold their value" and lab grown ones don't. The truth is more nuanced: neither type of diamond is a good financial investment for most buyers. Natural diamonds do have a more active secondary market, but the actual resale experience tends to disappoint people who've been told their stone is a valuable asset. A $70,000 natural diamond getting a $10,000 offer from a jeweler — an 85% loss — is not an unusual outcome. You bought retail; dealers buy at wholesale. That gap exists for both types.
Where lab grown diamonds change the equation isn't in resale performance — it's in purchase price. A comparable stone might cost $4,000 instead of $70,000. In a worst-case resale scenario, the financial exposure is a fraction of what it would be with a mined stone.
Buy a diamond to wear it, to celebrate something, to mark a moment — not as a financial strategy. And if that's your intention, lab grown diamonds offer something that genuinely wasn't accessible before: a stunning, certified, real diamond at a price that makes sense for your life.
That's not a compromise. That's just a better deal.
Continue your research: What Is a Lab Grown Diamond? | How Are Lab Grown Diamonds Made? | Lab Grown vs. Natural Diamond
