30 Most Expensive Green Gemstones, Ranked by Price
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Green reminds people of nature, so it’s only natural that green gemstones are believed to symbolize harmony, balance and long life, with an ability to calm and heal people.
While, yes, emeralds tend to be the most popular green gemstone, they’re certainly not the only one and not even the most expensive by carat weight. Some of the stones on our list, such as peridot or green garnets, have been labeled or sold as emeralds in the past before modern gem classification techniques were used and are now sold under their own name. Others, such as Paraiba tourmalines, were discovered relatively recently but have quickly become popular and expensive.
These days, there are many choices of expensive green gemstones, but we created a list of the most popular and ranked them by price.
30. Green Fluorite
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Price per carat:$.50 - $50
Fluorite is found in shades of purple, blue and green. The stone can be highly polished and cut into a multifaceted gem with the brilliance of a more expensive gem. Fluorite is sometimes confused with emeralds, amethysts and garnets for this reason.
Large gems are rare and most fluorite stones used in jewelry are small. Fluorite was the first mineral that was seen to “fluoresence,” or glow, under ultraviolet light, which gave the name to this phenomenon.
* Note: Gems can range in price, depending on the quality of the stone and the skill of a cutter in creating facets, so we’ve used their top value in the ranking.
29. Moldavite
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Price per carat:$10 - $60
Moldavite is a rare type of glass that’s created from sand or rock when a meteorite impacts the Earth. The best-quality stones are olive or bottle green hues, while lesser-quality ones have a brownish green color. In the past, moldavite has also been known as chrysolite.
Raw moldavite has a rippled, flattened shape, so jewelry makers often carve a piece to highlight unusual features or inclusions, or shape stones into emerald or round cuts.
28. Green Topaz
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Price per carat: $10 - $80
While topaz normally ranges from clear to golden yellow to brownish yellow in color, the gem also has a green variety. The green color is caused by chromium or vanadium coloring a clear topaz stone, and it’s quite rare.
The most common shade of green topaz is a lighter yellow-green. The stone isn't found in deeper colors that can mimic emeralds or more expensive green stones. However, green topaz’s main advantage is that it’s very affordable.
27. Amazonite
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Price per carat: $10 - $100
Amazonite comes in translucent to opaque milky green shades, with white veins running through the stones. Strangely, while the mineral is named after the Amazon River, this area isn’t a source of the stones.
Although Amazonite is rare, it’s still affordable in price. As the stone is prone to cracking, it's usually carved into beads or cabochons to avoid breaking.
26. Prasiolite
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Price per carat: $16 - $100
Prasiolite is a pale-green form of quartz and is becoming popular as an inexpensive green gem for jewelry. While prasiolite can occur naturally, most of it is created by heat treating lighter shades of purple amethyst, which is also quartz, until it lightens to a pale green.
The resulting stone is sometimes also called green amethyst. SIberian amethyst is a pale, lilac hue of amethyst that is often used to create prasiolite.
25. Chrome Diopside
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Price per carat: $100
Chrome Diopside is a popular, newer gemstone that comes in a rich grass-green color, similar to the more expensive emerald or tsavorite garnet. It’s formed from a calcium magnesium silicate mineral and colored green by chromium, hence its name.
The gem is sometimes called Siberian emerald, as Russia is the largest supplier. The most valuable stones are usually smaller in size and under one carat, as larger stones are too dark and look almost black.
24. Gem Silica
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Price per carat:$100+
Gem silica is a rare form of chalcedony, a quartz-based mineral that gets its bluish-green color from copper. The color ranges from an apple green that looks like jade to a blueish green that resembles turquoise.
As the gem silica supply is so limited, most people are unfamiliar with the stone. The stones are usually used by high-end jewelers to make one-of-a-kind, expensive designs or bought by collectors as an investment.
23. Actinolite
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Price per carat: $135
Actinolite is a mineral that contains iron and magnesium. The stones come in a variety of green shades, from pale to dark green, with the darkest stones appearing almost green black or black.
Actinolite is hard to cut as a gem and is usually only found as small stones; however, rare ones have been found up to 10 carats. Catseye specimens, which have a light refracting line that appears to run through the gem, are the most valuable forms of actinolite.
22. Amblygonite
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Price per carat:$80 - $160
Amblygonite is a fluorophosphate mineral that’s found in a range of white, cream, yellow and green colors. The most highly prized stones are lime- to mint-green hues.
Since amblygonite is a soft mineral, it’s rarely used in jewelry, especially items that can easily be damaged or scratched. This mineral tends to be bought by gem or mineral collectors. Cut amblygonite gems almost never weigh more than 10 carats.
21. Apatite
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Price per carat: $75 - $200
Apatite is a phosphorus-based gem found in a range of colors, including yellow, blue and green. The most popular shade is a bright bluish-green, which resembles the much more expensive Paraiba tourmaline.
Gem-quality apatite stones are rare and usually found in smaller sizes. Apatite is a soft stone and is used sparingly in jewelry, due to the fact that the supply is limited and that it’s easier to damage or wear down than harder minerals.
20. Brazilianite
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Price per carat:$225
Brazilianite is a phosphate mineral found in hues from pale yellow to lime green. This rare gem is named after the country of Brazil, where it was first discovered and which is still its main source.
As the supply of Brazilianite is limited and erratic, it’s not a popular gem. Almost all large stones are flawed and usually only of interest to collectors. Smaller specimens are better quality than larger ones, and there are few cut stones over five carats of gem quality.
19. Green Zircon
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Price per carat: $250 - 300
Zircon is a gem that comes in a range of colors, including green. Zircon is not cubic zirconia, a manmade material, but a naturally formed zirconium silicate mineral.
Green stones are extremely rare and created when zircon is exposed to radiation. They can range from olive green to a pure grassy-green color. As supply is so low, green zircons are usually only sold by gem dealers, favored by collectors and not often used to make jewelry.
18. Oregon Sunstone
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Price per carat: $48 - $405
Sunstone is a type of feldspar, which is one of the most common minerals in the Earth’s crust. Feldspar is found in a wide range of colors, from clear to orange and red shades, to green. The hues of colored stone can be light, medium or deep.
While much feldspar is carved or turned into cabochons, Oregon sunstone is unusual in that it can be made into faceted gems. Sunstones can have an optical, glittering, multicolor effect when seen in the light.
17. Peridot
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Price per carat:$5 - $560
Peridot is an olive-green stone that’s been popular since antiquity. Peridot is made from the silicate mineral olivine and is also called chrysolite. The stones are found near volcanoes or in volcanic deposits.
Peridot shines well in artificial lighting and has been called an “evening emerald.” The deeper the green color, the more expensive the stone, while light, yellow-green stones are more affordable. Larger, gem-quality peridots are rare. Peridots are often used in jewelry as an alternative to emeralds.
16. Green Tourmaline
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Price per carat: $50 - $750
Tourmaline is a boron silicate mineral that bonds with a wide range of other minerals and is consequently found in more colors than any other gemstone. Green tourmaline is created by iron or titanium, and gem prices depend largely on the color depth.
The more unusual hues, such as olive, mint or sea green, are generally more popular than clear green. Green tourmaline is associated with good health and is thought to improve speaking and intellectual skills.
15. Sphene
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Price per carat: $200 - $800+
Sphene is a titanium mineral, officially known as titanite. The gem is found in a range of colors, the most common tones being yellow, brown, orange and green. Green sphene is colored by chromium, which creates a rare chrome sphene.
While sphene has one of the best light dispersion properties of any gem, the stone is also relatively soft and difficult to fashion into jewelry. Sphene is more often bought as loose stones by collectors.
14. Turquoise
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Price per carat: $50 - $1,000
Turquoise is created when copper-rich groundwater reacts with phosphorus and aluminum. While bright blue is the most popular turquoise color, the stone also comes in shades of green, from blue green to avocado or lime-green shades caused by iron.
The value of a piece of turquoise depends on three things: the color, the texture and whether or not it contains a spider web of rock veins, known as a matrix.
13. Chrysoberyl
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Price per carat: $100 - $1,000
Chrysoberyl is a rare gemstone that is usually found in shades of yellowish green. The gem is also found in an opaque form called catseye, which has a golden background and a line of light that seems to move through the stone as it is turned.
Chrysoberyl has been known since antiquity and was a popular stone for engagement rings in the 19th century. When a chrysoberyl stone is cut well, it has a brilliance similar to that of a sapphire.
12. Chrome Tourmaline
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Price per carat: $400 - $1,000
Chrome tourmaline is a rare green boron silicate mineral. The gem differs from regular green tourmaline because it has traces of the metal chromium, hence the name, and an intense green hue.
The most valuable chrome tourmalines are a deep forest green and look similar to an emerald. Unlike most gems, the best-quality chrome tourmalines are smaller in size, as the color can be too dark in large stones.
11. Fire Opal
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Price per carat: $2,300
Fire opals are translucent and contain shades of blue, green and other colors that shift as the stone is moved in the light. This effect is called a “play of color.”
It’s one of the rarer types of opal, especially in gem-quality stones. While its background is typically milky or translucent white, the colors depend on which minerals were present when the stone was formed. Blue and green are the most common dominant colors.
10. Demantoid Garnet
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Price per carat:$3,300
Demantoid garnets come in a range of yellow, green-yellow and green shades. Demantoid means “diamond-like luster,” and the stone actually contains more brilliance than a diamond.
Mined stones are typically small in size, almost never over 10 carats in size, and they fetch a high price because supply continues to remain low. Since demantoids are so rare, they are usually only seen in antique jewelry.
9. Green Sapphire
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Price per carat: $800 - $7,000
While sapphires come in a wide range of colors, when iron is present in a stone, it causes the color to be green or green-blue. Sapphires in these shades are thought to symbolize tranquility and calmness.
Green sapphires are very rare, and green-star sapphires are the most desirable. Demand is growing for these gems as an alternative to emeralds. Lighter-green sapphires are more valuable than darker ones, as the lighter colors reflect light better.
8. Tsavorite Garnet
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Price per carat: $1,550 - $8,500
Tsavorite is a rare form of garnet, normally a deep red, which is colored green by the presence of chromium or vanadium. Tsavorite is prized for its clear color and intense hue. Another factor that contributes to the gem’s rarity is that tsavorite stones are only found in small sizes. One-carat gems are extremely rare.
Despite a limited supply, tsavorite is becoming a popular alternative to emeralds, especially for engagement rings, and global prices are steadily increasing.
7. Alexandrite
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Price per carat: $12,000
Alexandrite was first discovered in Russia and named for Czar Alexander II. The stone is known for its remarkable ability to change color from a vivid green in daylight to red in artificial light.
As a result, Alexandrite is sometimes referred to as “emerald by day, ruby by night.” This is due to chromium, iron and titanium in the stone and their light-absorbing properties. This gem is one of the rarest in the world, which explains its high price.
5. Serendibite (Tie)
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Price per carat: $18,000
Bottom Line: Serendibite: Serendibite is an extremely rare silica and boron mineral that’s dark blue green, ranging to a dark blue gray in color. The mineral is named for Serendib, the old Arabic name for Sri Lanka, where the stone was first discovered.
The reason this mineral is so expensive is that it is only rarely found in larger gem-quality stones. Most serendibite stones used in jewelry are small.
5. Emerald (Tie)
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Price per carat: $18,000
Emeralds are perhaps the most popular type of green gemstone. They are formed of the mineral beryl with small amounts of chromium or vanadium. The darker the color and the larger the size, the more valuable the stone.
Emeralds have been prized throughout history by royalty and the wealthy, symbolizing paradise and immortality. The 18.04-carat Rockefeller Emerald was the most expensive emerald per carat ever sold — at $5.51 million, or $305,500 per carat.
3. Grandidierite (Tie)
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Price per carat: $20,000
Grandidierite is a rare mineral in opaque or translucent bluish-green hues and is often confused with jade. The gem was first discovered in 1902 in Madagascar and named after the French explorer, Alfred Grandidier, who wrote about the island’s natural history and geography.
Translucent and transparent Grandidierite stones are considered gem quality, although only one in 1,000 qualify. The stone is difficult to cut and is often made into cabochons and shaped and polished rather than faceted.
3. Jadeite (Tie)
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Price per carat: $20,000
Jadeite is one of two minerals called jade and comes in a range of colors. Bright green jadeite, called “imperial jade,” is the rarest and most expensive. Jadeite is often carved into statues, decorative objects and weapons as well as jewelry.
The Olmecs, Maya and Aztecs of meso-America valued jadeite more than gold and carved ceremonial objects from the stone. The Maori of New Zealand created both weapons and traditional ornaments.
2. Paraiba Tourmaline
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Price per carat: $600 - $30,000
Paraiba tourmalines are relatively new, having been first discovered in 1989 in Paraiba, Brazil. The stones are known for having a bright “electric” color saturation in mint-green or pale-blue hues. The darker-colored Paraiba tourmalines are the most in demand and the most expensive.
The gem is popular with designers because of its bright colors. Demand for Paraiba tourmaline is greater than supply, and the price of this unusual stone is expected to continue to rise.
1. Green Diamond
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Price per carat: $50,000 - $300,000
Green diamonds are extremely rare. The color is created when white diamonds are exposed to radioactive minerals, such as uranium, deep in the Earth. Around 300 gem-quality stones over one carat have been discovered and only 10 of these are over three carats.
Almost all the larger stones belong to museums. A 5.03-carat diamond called the Aurora Green sold at a Christie's auction for $16.8 million, which came to $3.5 million per carat.