Princess Cut Lab-Grown Diamonds in 2026: Is It Still a Good Choice?

Last updated: August 2026

Is a princess cut still a good choice in 2026?

It is, on its own terms, and those terms have not changed. A princess is a square modified brilliant: brilliant-style faceting inside a square outline. That combination does something no other shape does quite as cleanly — it gives you hard geometry and genuine sparkle at once, where an emerald cut gives you geometry with mirror-like flashes instead.

It is also efficient to cut. A round wastes the most rough of any shape, which is a large part of why round costs the most per carat; a princess is cut from octahedral rough with far less loss, and that shows up in the price. At any given carat weight and grade band, a princess will usually sit below a round.

What has not improved with time is the shape’s one structural weakness, and that is where the decision actually lives.

How vulnerable are the corners, and do V-prongs really help?

The corners are the thinnest, most exposed points on the stone, and they take the impact from every knock the ring receives. Diamond is extremely hard but not unbreakable — it has directions along which it cleaves, and a sharp corner sitting proud of the metal is where that gets tested. Chipped corners on princess cuts are not folklore; they are the reason the shape is set the way it is.

A V-prong is a prong shaped like the letter V, which wraps the corner from two sides instead of gripping a flat edge. It does two jobs: it puts metal between the corner and the world, and it holds the stone at its most fragile point rather than near it. A standard round prong sitting beside a corner leaves the corner itself exposed.

A bezel, which surrounds the whole girdle in metal, protects even better and is the right answer for someone who works with their hands. It costs you a little face-up size and a little brightness at the edges, which is a fair trade for the person who needs it. What is not a fair trade is a four-prong setting that grips the flat sides and leaves the corners bare. If a princess ring is sold that way, it is the setting that is wrong, not the stone.

How does a princess show colour and inclusions compared with a round?

Differently, and in a way that changes what you inspect. Brilliant faceting scatters light, so across the open field of the stone a princess conceals small inclusions about as well as a round does. The difference is at the corners, where body colour tends to concentrate and where warmth becomes findable before it does anywhere else on the stone. When you look at a princess, look at the corners specifically — that is the part of a princess that is honest about colour.

Inclusions near a corner are a separate matter and a more serious one. An inclusion sitting in or near the corner is not just a clarity question; it is a weak point in the part of the stone most likely to be struck. That is worth checking on the plot on the report rather than by eye. Our guide to the 4Cs explains how clarity plots are drawn.

Why does a princess look smaller than its carat weight suggests?

Princess cuts run deep. Where a well-cut round sits in the low sixties for depth percentage, princess cuts commonly sit in the high sixties or seventies, and that depth is weight buried below the girdle where no one will see it. A princess and a round of identical carat weight will not present the same amount of surface to the eye — the princess will present less.

Read the millimetre measurements rather than the carat figure when comparing two princess cuts. The difference between a shallow one and a deep one at the same weight is visible on the hand and invisible on the price tag.

What do chevron facets change?

The pavilion of a princess is cut with chevron-shaped facets, and cutters use two, three or four of them. The count is not a quality grade; it is a character setting.

Fewer chevrons produce larger, bolder blocks of light — flashes you can see individually, closer in feel to a chunky-faceted stone. More chevrons break the return into smaller, busier pieces, giving a finer and more scattered sparkle that also hides inclusions a little better. Neither is superior. What matters is that the count is rarely advertised, so if the character of the sparkle matters to you, the video is the only place to judge it.

What ratio and setting should you choose?

For a princess that reads as square, the length-to-width ratio wants to be close to 1.00, and anything up to about 1.05 still reads square to the eye. Above that the stone starts to read as a rectangle, which is a legitimate look but is no longer the shape most people are asking for when they ask for a princess.

Setting-wise: V-prongs as the default, a bezel if the wearer is hard on their hands, and a halo if you want the face-up size back that the depth took away — a halo adds real width, and it also puts a ring of metal and small stones around the corners, which is protection by side effect. Straight wedding bands sit flush against a princess in a solitaire setting, which is one practical advantage it holds over pointed and elongated shapes. Our shape guide covers how the other nine shapes handle the same question.

Who should not buy a princess cut?

Anyone who cannot commit to a protective setting. If you want a bare four-prong solitaire with the corners on show, buy a cushion or a radiant instead — both have corners that are rounded or cut away, and both give you a similar squared outline without the exposure.

Anyone whose priority is maximum face-up size per carat should also look elsewhere; elongated shapes such as oval and elongated radiant spread wider for the same weight. And anyone who works with their hands all day, or takes a ring through gym equipment and gardening without removing it, is better served by a bezel-set stone in a shape with no corners at all.

On the stones themselves: Beyond Carat sets D, E or F colour with VVS or VS clarity and Excellent cut, each one graded by IGI, the International Gemological Institute, with the report in the box. That narrow band has a direct cost — Beyond Carat cannot be the cheapest seller at a given carat weight, because a retailer selling G through J colour and SI clarity will always come in lower. On a princess in particular, some of that saving would be genuinely invisible across the field of the stone, though not necessarily at the corners. The range is in the engagement ring collection.

Frequently asked questions

Do princess cut diamonds chip easily?

The corners are the vulnerable part, and they chip if left exposed. A V-prong wraps each corner from two sides, and a bezel encloses the girdle entirely. Set that way, a princess is practical for daily wear; set with plain prongs on the flat sides, it is not.

Why does a princess cut look smaller than a round of the same carat?

Because princess cuts are cut deep. A well-cut round sits in the low sixties for depth percentage while a princess commonly sits in the high sixties or seventies, and that extra depth is weight below the girdle where it cannot be seen face-up.

What length-to-width ratio should a princess cut have?

Close to 1.00 for a stone that reads square, and up to about 1.05 still looks square to the eye. Above that it begins to read as a rectangle — a valid look, but not the outline most buyers have in mind when they ask for a princess.