Carat Weight


Carat Weight - Besides color, clarity and cut, weight provides another determining factor for the identification and evaluation of a diamond. Carat is the unit of weight for the diamond. The carat is subdivided into 100 points (1 carat = 100 points). Very small brilliants are measured in "points"; one "point" is equal to one hundredth of a carat (0.01 ct). So a diamond weighing 50pts is 1/2 carat.

Weight ranges of diamonds:
One carat 0.95 - 1.05 ct
Three quarter carat 0.72 - 0.76 ct
Half carat 0.47 - 0.56 ct
Quarter carat 0.23 - 0.26 ct

Commercially, diamonds of different weight ranges are priced differently:
A brilliant of 0.99ct is about 10-15% cheaper than a brilliant of 1.01 ct of the same quality. The carat price is not uniform for all sizes of a certain quality, but increase with the size of the stone. Because of the rarity of larger stones the price is influenced by the size.

The chart below gives an approximation of the diameters of "Ideal" cut stones, it lists the carat weight, the diameter and the height.

carat0.05 carat0.10 carat0.20 carat0.25 carat0.30 carat0.40 carat0.50 carat0.70
Carat 0.05 0.10 0.20 0.25 0.30 0.40 0.50 0.70
Øm/ m 2.5 3.0 3.8 4.1 4.5 4.8 5.2 5.8
h m/ m 1.5 1.8 2.3 2.5 2.7 3.0 3.1 3.5
carat0.90 carat1.00 carat1.25 carat1.50 carat1.75 carat2.00 carat2.50 carat3.00
Carat 0.90 1.00 1.25 1.50 1.75 2.00 2.50 3.00
Øm/ m 6.3 6.5 6.9 7.4 7.8 8.2 8.8 9.4
h m/ m 3.8 3.9 4.3 4.5 4.7 4.9 5.3 5.6


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