After you have decided what cut, colour, and clarity grade you are happy with, it is easy to choose the carat weight of diamond that will fit within your budget.

The below chart illustrates how diamonds of different carat weights look when viewed from the top. Note that when a diamond doubles in carat weight it doesn’t double in size, this is a common misconception between weight and size. Larger diamonds are always much rarer than smaller ones and this is reflected in the price. When comparing the price of a 2ct diamond and a 4ct diamond of the same quality the price doesn’t automatically double as the 4ct stone is much harder to find during the mining process, its price will be significantly more than double. Approximately 100 tonnes of ore is mined for every one carat of commercial quality diamonds.