The GIA does not grade emerald cut diamonds, or other fancy shaped diamonds, for cut grade. If you see a cut grade associated with an emerald cut diamond, it is a cut grade that the jeweler is assigning to the diamond themselves (the accompanying GIA certificate will not have a cut grade). While there is no problem with this, we strongly recommend you verify the cut grade yourself.

For these reasons, and because how well a diamond is cut is the most crucial factor in maximizing the beauty, you want to make sure you understand the ideal cut specifications. The table below serves as a general guideline for evaluating the cut of an emerald cut diamond.

The color grade of an emerald cut diamond refers to how much color (or lack of a color) the diamond shows. In general, emerald cut diamonds reveal color easier compared to other diamond shapes because step cut diamonds do not hide color as much as brilliant cut diamonds. This isn’t anything to worry about, but you may want to get consider getting one color grade higher than you would plan to get if you were buying a different diamond shape, like a round diamond.

The good news is smaller emerald cut diamonds hide color better than larger emeralds do, so depending on the size of diamond you purchase, you may not need to buy a colorless (D-F) diamond even if you want your diamond to appear colorless. The chart below will help you decide on what color emerald cut diamond to purchase based on if you want a colorless diamond, a diamond with limited color, or a warmer diamond.

The clarity grade of emerald cut diamond discloses how many and how severe the imperfections are on the diamond. It’s harder to see flaws on smaller emerald cut diamonds than larger ones, so if you are buying a smaller stone you can get away with purchasing one with a lower clarity rating while keeping an eye-clean appearance. However, you can see imperfections in an emerald cut diamond more easily than you can in other diamonds because the step cuts make them very easy to spot and while in many shapes you can find “eye clean” SI2 diamonds, this is very rare in emerald cut diamonds unless it is a very small diamond.

Evaluating clarity in emerald cut diamonds is subjective because each consumer has their own standard for clarity. Some may be perfectly comfortable with inclusions as long as they cannot easily see it, but other may insist on a more technically flawless appearance. The clarity chart below provides general guidelines for picking a clarity rating for your emerald cut diamond, based on your inclusion tolerance. Please note that the ratings in the Clean to the Naked Eye column assume that your jeweler will check to ensure it is actually eye-clean. For example, every time a customer purchases an emerald cut engagement ring from us, we send a gemologist to check and make sure the diamond is “eye-clean” and inform the customer if it isn’t. If you want an eye clean stone, make sure you ask your jeweler to do the same because basing it off the GIA-certificate is not enough.