· 6 min read
What Diamond Clarity Is Best? A Jeweller's Honest Answer
Wondering what diamond clarity is best? VS2 and SI1 usually give you an eye-clean stone without paying for flaws only a jeweller's loupe can see.
For most engagement rings, VS2 or SI1 is the best clarity to buy. Both are usually eye-clean at normal viewing distance, and both sit far below the price of the top of the scale. What moves the answer up or down is the shape and size of the stone, not the letters on the report.
What clarity actually grades
Clarity describes the crystals, feathers and clouds that formed inside the diamond while it grew, plus any small marks left on the surface after cutting. A grader assesses them under 10x magnification in controlled light. That detail matters more than anything else in this article: the grade tells you what a trained person sees through a loupe, not what anyone sees across a dinner table.
The scale from the top:
- FL and IF (Flawless, Internally Flawless): nothing internal at 10x. Rare, and priced accordingly.
- VVS1 and VVS2 (Very Very Slightly Included): a grader needs time to find the inclusion at 10x.
- VS1 and VS2 (Very Slightly Included): easy for a grader to find at 10x, essentially never visible without magnification.
- SI1 and SI2 (Slightly Included): obvious at 10x. SI1 is usually eye-clean, SI2 is a coin toss.
- I1 to I3 (Included): visible to the naked eye, and often affecting brightness or durability.
The grades most rings should use
Here is roughly where the money goes. The figures below are approximate market ranges for a 1.00 ct round natural diamond, G colour, excellent cut, in CAD. Diamond pricing moves month to month, so treat these as proportions rather than quotes.
| Grade | What a loupe shows | Eye-clean at arm's length? | Rough price (CAD) |
|---|---|---|---|
| IF | Nothing internal | Yes | $10,000 – $13,000 |
| VVS2 | One small inclusion, hard to find | Yes | $8,000 – $10,000 |
| VS1 | Small inclusion, easy to find | Yes | $7,000 – $9,000 |
| VS2 | Clearly visible at 10x | Yes, nearly always | $6,500 – $8,500 |
| SI1 | Obvious at 10x | Usually, but check the stone | $5,500 – $7,000 |
| SI2 | Obvious, sometimes several | Sometimes | $4,500 – $6,000 |
| I1 | Visible without magnification | No | $3,500 – $4,500 |
The gap between VS2 and IF is often $4,000 or more on a one carat stone, and the two look identical on a hand. That money buys a noticeably larger diamond, a better cut grade, or simply stays in your account. Paying for VVS or IF on a round brilliant is the single most common way people overspend on a centre stone.
Lab-grown diamonds change the arithmetic. Most lab stones on the market are VS or better because the growth process produces fewer visible inclusions, and the price difference between a VS1 and a VVS2 lab diamond is small. With lab-grown there is no reason to drop to SI2 to save money, so buy VS2 or VS1 and stop thinking about it.
Shape changes the answer
Clarity is not one recommendation. How a diamond is cut determines how well it hides what is inside.
Step cuts hide nothing
Emerald and Asscher cuts use long, flat facets that act like windows. There is no scattered sparkle to break up your view, so an inclusion sitting under the table is plainly visible. On these shapes, VS2 is the floor and VS1 is the safer buy.
Brilliant cuts hide a lot
Rounds, ovals, cushions, pears and radiants scatter light in hundreds of directions. That visual noise conceals inclusions well, which is why SI1 works so often in these shapes.
| Shape | Lowest clarity I would normally go to | Reason |
|---|---|---|
| Round brilliant | SI1 | Best inclusion-hiding cut there is |
| Cushion, radiant | SI1 | Dense faceting, plenty of scatter |
| Oval, pear, marquise | SI1, VS2 above 1.5 ct | Large open tables show more |
| Princess | SI1 | Watch for inclusions near the corners |
| Emerald, Asscher | VS2, ideally VS1 | Open step facets show everything |
Size pushes the same direction. A 0.70 ct SI2 can look perfectly clean, while the identical inclusion in a 2.50 ct stone is simply larger and easier to spot. Above about 2 carats, move up one grade from whatever the table above suggests.
How to check a stone properly
The grade narrows the field. The individual diamond decides it. When you are comparing stones on our loose diamond search, work through this:
- Open the clarity plot on the grading report. It maps every inclusion the grader recorded.
- Look at where the marks sit. Anything under the table, in the middle of your view, is worse than the same inclusion tucked near the girdle where a prong may cover it.
- Read the inclusion type. Crystals and feathers are pinpointed and visible. A cloud spread across the stone is different: heavy clouds can make a diamond look slightly hazy even when nothing is individually visible.
- Check the comments line. Wording such as "clarity grade is based on clouds not shown" is a flag on SI stones, because it means the grade rests on something the plot does not draw.
- Watch the video at normal size. Diamond videos are magnified 20 to 40 times. Shrink the window to roughly the real size of the stone before deciding, or you will reject perfectly clean diamonds.
- Ask about a large feather reaching the surface. Most feathers are harmless, but one running to the girdle on a stone that will be set with tension or a sharp point deserves a conversation.
Where clarity sits against cut and colour
If you have a fixed budget, spend it in this order: cut, then colour, then clarity, then carat. Cut controls how much light comes back at you, and no clarity grade rescues a dull stone. Colour is more noticeable than clarity in most settings, particularly in platinum or white gold where a warm stone reads yellow against the metal. Clarity is the grade you can most safely trade down, because a well-chosen SI1 and a VVS1 look the same on a hand.
One caveat on metal. If you are setting the diamond in yellow or rose gold, colour becomes much less critical, and you can move down to an I or J colour and put the savings into size. Clarity advice does not change with metal.
When higher clarity is genuinely worth paying for
There are real cases:
- Step cuts, as above. VS1 on an emerald cut is money well spent.
- Stones above roughly 3 carats, where inclusions scale up with the surface area.
- Bezel or half-bezel settings that cover the girdle, which removes the option of hiding a marginal inclusion under a prong.
- If you know yourself well enough to admit that knowing an inclusion exists will bother you. That is a legitimate reason, and it is cheaper to buy VS1 than to replace the stone later.
Outside those cases, the honest answer is that FL, IF and VVS grades on a brilliant cut buy you a line on a certificate and nothing your eye can detect.
What to do next
Start with the setting, because the style determines how much of the diamond is exposed and where a prong might fall. Browse the engagement ring settings, then filter the loose diamond search to VS2 and SI1 in your shape and budget, and open the videos on your shortlist at true size. When you have a pair you like, put them together on the complete ring page to choose metal, size and engraving, and turn the finished ring in 3D before you order.
If you are still deciding between shapes or between natural and lab-grown, those questions are covered in our other engagement ring guides.