Tanzanite Price per Carat: What 502 Stones Asked in 2026
What five sellers asked per carat on 15 October 2026, by size, why colour moves the price, and why the letters on the label tell you so little.
At 1 to 2 carats, tanzanite asks about $240 to $820 a carat. That is the spread between the median prices of four sellers we read on 15 October 2026, all heated stones. Colour does most of the work. Size, past 3 carats, much less. The AAA letters, which each seller defines for itself, tell you very little. We have no tanzanite right now; the blue sapphires below are the stone it is most often compared with.
- 1 to 2 ct, asking price
- $240 to $820 a carat (15 Oct 2026)
- Most valued colour
- Saturated pure blue or violetish blue
- AAA, AAAA
- Each seller's own grade
- Treatment
- About 95% heated, usually undetectable
- Hardness
- 6 to 7 Mohs, one cleavage
- Best pieces
- Pendants and earrings
How much does tanzanite cost per carat?
Here is what five independent sellers asked in 502 listings of loose, faceted, heated tanzanites on 15 October 2026. For each size, we took every seller's median price per carat, then wrote the range from the cheapest seller to the dearest. One blended figure would have hidden the gap: a single large stock would have drowned the others.
| Weight | Typical asking price per carat | Cheapest to dearest stone |
|---|---|---|
| 1 to 2 ct | $240 to $820 (4 sellers) | $236 to $1,353 |
| 2 to 3 ct | $490 to $820 (4 sellers) | $200 to $1,108 |
| 3 to 5 ct | $560 to $850 (3 sellers) | $212 to $1,155 |
| 5 to 10 ct | $560 to $680 (4 sellers) | $214 to $1,018 |
| 10 ct and over | $670 to $810 (3 sellers) | $510 to $1,020 |
Asking prices, not sale prices. Two things stand out. At the same weight, one seller's typical stone asks more than three times another's. And past 3 carats, the price per carat barely climbs: only one of the 502 stones asked more than $1,200 a carat. The charts that run to $2,000 a carat for large stones describe prices that none of these 502 stones asked.
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| Asking price per carat | Asked per carat |
|---|---|
| 1 to 1.99 ct, typical ask | $240 to $820 |
| 1 to 1.99 ct, full span | $236 to $1,353 |
| 2 to 2.99 ct, typical ask | $490 to $820 |
| 2 to 2.99 ct, full span | $200 to $1,108 |
| 3 to 4.99 ct, typical ask | $560 to $850 |
| 3 to 4.99 ct, full span | $212 to $1,155 |
| 5 to 9.99 ct, typical ask | $560 to $680 |
| 5 to 9.99 ct, full span | $214 to $1,018 |
Typical ask is each seller’s middle listing, from the lowest middle to the highest. Full span is the cheapest and the dearest single listing.
Asking prices read on 502 listings of heated tanzanites at five independent sellers on 15 October 2026. Asked, not sold, and several sellers price from a list. This places a quote, it does not value a stone.
Several sellers also price from a list, with dozens of stones at exactly the same price per carat. A list is not a judgement of your stone, so compare stones, not carat prices. For prices across other species, see our coloured gemstone market statistics.
Why can two tanzanites of the same weight cost so differently?
Colour, from the least valued to the most valued:
Colour sets the price
Which tanzanite colours cost more?
One ruler, from the colour the trade values least to the one it values most.
Colour, from the least valued to the most valued
Valued least
Pale stones, whatever the hue
In any shade, a pale stone is valued less than a saturated one.
Covers: Pale
Popular, most plentiful
Saturated bluish purple
Some buyers prefer the more purple stones, and they cost less.
Covers: Purple
Top of the trade
Strongly saturated violetish blue to pure blue
Mostly blue stones generally ask more per carat than purple ones.
Covers: Violet blue, Blue
The brackets never overlap: the further right the colour, the more the trade values it, at the same weight.
Drawing: the colours are drawn, not measured on stones, and no price sits on them. The order is the trade's, not a grade.
Part of that colour is chosen at the cutting wheel. Tanzanite shows different colours in different directions, and cutting for blue usually loses more rough than cutting for purple. The cutter picks between a smaller blue stone and a larger purple one. Deep colours mostly show in stones of 5 carats and more; small stones are usually lighter.
Clarity weighs less. Tanzanite is usually eye-clean, so at any price, expect a stone that looks clean in your hand.
What do AAA and AAAA mean on a tanzanite?
Whatever the seller decides. Letters like AAA are names dealers give to their own grades, and each one draws its own scale. One seller we read on 15 October calls the same calibrated grade "AA" in its web address and "AAA" on the page. Another seller's AAAA can mean the same stone as this AAA.
Six questions tell you more than any letter:
Six questions to send before you accept a tanzanite price
6 points
A message ready to send to the seller, with all the questions.
See the message
Hello, I am interested in this tanzanite. Before I decide, could you answer a few questions in writing? 1. What are the total price and the exact weight in carats of this stone? 2. If you grade it AAA or AAAA, what do those letters mean in your shop, in words: which hue, and how deep? 3. Can you send photos or a short video of this exact stone face-up in daylight, so I can see whether it is blue, violetish blue or bluish purple, and how deep? 4. Does the stone show any brown or green, face-up or tilted? 5. Has this stone been heated? If you describe it as unheated, what proves it? 6. Will a report from an independent laboratory identify this stone as tanzanite? Thank you for your time.
Is tanzanite heated, and does it lower the price?
Almost always heated, and every price above is for heated stones: that is the normal state of tanzanite. Untreated, it is typically brownish. Heated to about 600 to 650°C, it turns a uniform blue, and about 95 percent of the blue tanzanite for sale owes its colour to that heat. The colour is stable.
The catch runs the other way. The heat usually leaves nothing a laboratory can detect, so "unheated" on a tanzanite is hard to prove. Before paying more for the word, ask what proves it.
What a report does prove is identity. The most convincing imitation is synthetic forsterite, strongly pleochroic like tanzanite; glass, synthetic corundum and synthetic garnet also turn up. What a report covers, and what it does not: what a gemstone certificate proves.
Where should you wear a tanzanite?
Where it won't take knocks. Tanzanite rates 6 to 7 on the Mohs scale, and its toughness is fair to poor: one direction of cleavage, and a sensitivity to sudden temperature changes. Pendants and earrings suit it best. A ring worn every day needs a setting designed to protect the stone.
Clean it in warm, soapy water, never in an ultrasonic or steam cleaner. The full comparison with a harder blue stone is in tanzanite or sapphire.
Quick answers
How much is a 1 carat tanzanite worth?
What colour of tanzanite is the most valuable?
Is unheated tanzanite worth more?
Does tanzanite go up in value?
Is tanzanite more expensive than sapphire?
Price the colour, not the letters
Find your weight in the table, then judge the stone in daylight: how blue, how deep, how clean to the eye. Expect it heated, keep it away from knocks, and ask for a report that names it. If tanzanite is your stone, describe the one you want. If it is the violet blue you love, our violet sapphires carry it at 9 on the Mohs scale.
