Color G Diamond: Is it Good or Bad?

Summary in a few lines:

Diamond color grade has several groups, with D-F being “Colorless”, and G-J in next group being “Near colorless”, it goes all the way to Z in grading.

G color is the first grade in the near-colorless group, and in a nutshell, people would never be able to tell what color is the diamond without having it next to a well-known color diamond.

Here is a stunning 1 carat VS2 G color diamond on James Allen, or this astonishing A CUT ABOVE® on Whiteflash with G color as well, can you tell they are not colorless?

It’s even harder to tell how many grades 2 diamonds are apart (from E grade to G or H for example) from each other.

G color will not show any yellow color, and no one can differentiate it from an F color for example.

In terms of pricing, while G color is great color grade, it’s not the best bang for your buck, because you can even go H in grade, and still have a clear diamond.

Let’s break this into pieces.

People feel overwhelmed by the number of choices when buying any product. And with today’s unprecedented amount of online resources and advice coming from every direction (friends, work, family), it has become way harder to make a buying decision.

The same goes for diamond shoppers, when it comes to diamond color, buyers start to panic with confusion and not being able to decide on a certain color!

In most cases, they’re not sure what to pick and what certain color grades (like colorless) mean, and do “not colorless” grades mean that a diamond will look yellow?

To make it even worse, G color’s location on the color chart is basically the first grade in the “near-colorless” category, which makes it harder to tell the actual color!

Their friends will go around telling them to better go high (in color grades) to avoid any yellowish appearance and some will say that it’s safe to go down and save their money for some of the other 4Cs (cut or carat), whereas others are convinced that it’s a preference rather than good or bad.

Let’s start by a quick overview of diamond color chart and where G stands.

G Color Diamond: Where G Stands in Color Chart?

To understand where the G color stands on the Diamonds Color Scale, you first need to know that the Gemological Institute of America (GIA) ranks diamonds on a scale from D to Z where D represents colorless diamonds, and Z represents diamonds colored light yellow or near brown.

As you see, every number of grades is grouped together to form a color reference, for example, D, E, F colors are all considered ‘Colorless’, while the range of G-J is ‘Near-colorless’, with G being less colored than J.

The G Color Diamond rests perfectly as the first on the near colorless shade scale, having a slight tint of yellow as ranked by the GIA.

The smaller the G Color diamond, the less relevant the hue it becomes. However, diamond color is taken into consideration as their carat weight increases given that the bigger a diamond is, the more visible the color tints.

G color diamonds are usually purchased in over 1 carat, unlike cheaper I-J grade diamonds which are obtained in less than 1-carat cuts (to mask the color tint effectively).

In other words, the larger the diamond (i.e. higher carat), the more sensitive it becomes to color. For instance, a 1-carat (or higher) H-color diamond will look “a bit” more yellow than a G color diamond. 

However, this statement isn’t a rule and is definitely not applicable at all times for the sole reason that a lot comes into play in setting diamond color, therefore, you can consider it as a reference only.

G Color: Most Popular & Most “Questioned” Grade

The G Color Diamond is considered, how can we say it, the “sweet spot” on the GIA color scale.

It’s the first grade right after the colorless group (D-F), this grade kind of masks the color in the diamond and makes it almost impossible to notice unless compared with another known-color diamond right next to it.

The only way to get the color grade right is to compare it with a known color set. Otherwise, you (or actually anyone else) can NEVER tell a diamond color by just looking at it.

It’s worth mentioning that other factors also play a role in choosing a diamond color, for instance, the setting. When G color (or even H gems in some cases) are set in platinum or white gold settings, they appear less colored, and in fact appear in a higher grade.

For this reason, G Color diamonds are sought after since they appear colorless to the naked eye, and are in fact less expensive than D-F diamonds when fixed in proper settings, we’re talking 10% up to 25% price variance between G color and the upper grades (D-F).

How Popular is G Color?

Out of +540000 diamonds on James Allen, here is a breakdown for round diamonds in different color grades (all cut grade, all carat, and all clarity grades):

D 38600
E 46300
F 49600
G 58800
H 56500
I 48900

G color is a clear winner in popularity, we did the same check on Blue Nile, same results, G won with around 5000 more than next color (which is H, will see shortly why this is not a coincidence).

Insane numbers here right? We’re talking about more than 1 million diamond at just two stores! No wonder we always recommend to shop diamonds online, and we also believe you should check our unbiased review for James Allen, as well as Blue Nile.

Wonder how a G Color diamond looks under 20x magnification?

Here is a 1-carat, G color diamond on James Allen, do you see any yellowish appearance? We doubt.

You can even check it out under a 40x magnification from the options under the diamond image (as highlighted here):

Is G Color a Good Grade Choice?

Well, we can’t really say that the G color diamond is purely colorless, nevertheless, it’s not considered colored as well. If you’ve seen a G color before, we bet that you didn’t notice a single hue of yellow color in it!

The G Color is almost impossible to show any yellow color unless you compare it to a colorless diamond like D or from within the colorless group (E & F Colors), under ideal light reflection conditions.

Spoiler alert, you shouldn’t go with the “highest possible” color grade nor an extremely low color grade.

With the first option, you’ll be paying way much more than you need, whereas the second option results in a diamond appearing yellow.

Generally speaking, we don’t recommend going less than an H-color diamond.

Feeling lost already?

Yep, this is why we believe it’s essential that you get your knowledge on diamonds from a trusted source, and then go hit an online reputable store like James Allen & Blue Nile and get your perfect diamond.

And if you happen to be looking for superior quality diamonds as we explained in this review, we recommend you to shop online at Whiteflash and explore their Premium Cuts & A CUT ABOVE fancy collections!

Does G Color Diamonds Look Yellow?

The short answer? No.

As mentioned above, this becomes even harder when the diamond is set on white gold or a platinum setting, such settings are known to hide any yellow color in a stone.

So in general, G color will not show any yellow color, it’s the first grade next to colorless group, making it more expensive compared to other grades in the same group (H-J) since people tend to go there

Let’s tell you one more thing:

If G color is that safe, doesn’t it make sense that the next color grade will have more or less the same characteristics? Because as we mentioned, differentiating grades is so hard and requires decent skills.

So, for untrained eye, both colors (G & H) will have almost the same effect, and when this comes with a setting color that’s known to hide colors, the mission to hide any color would be easily accomplished.

Should You Go Any Higher than G Color?

Diamond salespeople will always try to convince couples to get the highest color to avoid any yellow appearance, ironically, this “highest grade” will be the highest color they have in store, and no need to go any grade higher!

So if they have an F color diamond matching your needs, F would be the best color, and when they have an E, E will be spectacular, you get the idea.

It’s worth mentioning, though, that a diamond color needs to be inspected by an expert (probably a 3rd party) and that it sure isn’t easily seen by the naked eye unless it’s compared with a known-grade diamond (as discussed on multiple occasions above).

This is where we must only rely on high reputation certification labs like GIA or AGS when picking a diamond, grades on certificates issued by these labs can’t be wrong!

G vs H Color Comparison

We have a dedicated article to compare G vs H Color Diamonds, but let’s make a quick one here.

For the sake of illustration, check out these two images for diamonds on James Allen: Adjacent in color grade, and identical in Cut (Excellent grade) & Clarity (VS2 grade) and almost 1 carat both, however, one is G color and the other is H color, can you guess which is which?

Keep in mind that these images are 20x magnified, and not what you normally see with a naked eye (this is one of the main reasons we always recommend James Allen for our readers, magnified 360-degree videos can’t be wrong!).

If you think the right one is “more colorless”, so you’ve actually guessed the H color diamond, while the left one is a G!

Here is a link to the G Color diamond (left diamond) on James Allen, and then this is the H Color one (right diamond).

That’s why we believe that your first resort should always be an H color diamond.

To summarize, G & H colors are considered the best choices for colors that we recommend in general, provided with the right setting (a good match color for the setting), you can step down to an H without even spotting a hue of yellow!

G Color Diamond Price Range

Color is only one player in a game of the big four (and much more if we can all diamond characteristics)! And all these characteristics influence diamond prices of course.

We will be fixing the following factors: Cut, Clarity, Carat, Polish, Symmetry & Fluorescence, and only changing the color for the sake of noticing the price difference/change between H, G, and F color diamonds.

Being the largest retailers globally, we ran several searches on Blue Nile & James Allen with the following characteristics:

Carat: 1

Cut: Excellent (Ideal)

Clarity: VS2

Polish: Excellent

Symmetry: Excellent

Fluorescence: None

Fix all the above factors and start changing the color, once with an H, another search with a G, and the third one with an F.

We took the liberty to try them all for you, you can see all results below (outliers excluded).

Blue Nile Prices for H, G, F Color Diamonds:

H Color: $6.0k – $7.6k (average $6.8k)

G Color: $6.4k – $8.2k (average $7.3k)

F Color: $7.0k – $9.0k (average $8.0k)

James Allen Prices for H, G, F Color Diamonds:

H Color: $5.9k – $7.4k (average $6.6k)

G Color: $6.3k – $7.9k (average $7.1k)

F Color: $6.8k – $8.7k (average $7.7k)

We can clearly note that:

1. James Allen’s prices are slightly cheaper than Blue Nile.
2. In jumping from H to G color, the average price increases by around $500.
3. And most importantly, if you calculate the price difference between G and F color, this jump will cost you $600-$700 on average!

This is no magic, it’s simply because you’re moving from a Near-Colorless grade to a Colorless grade!

Best Cut, Clarity, and Carat When Picking a G Color Diamond

Because G color is considered a “sweet spot” in terms of color grading, other diamond characteristics need to be carefully selected so that a nice diamond with great brilliance, eye clean, and mesmerizing scintillation is guaranteed! 

In a very short brief, let’s take a look on Clarity, Cut, and Carat grades:

4Cs Overview

1. Clarity

This is a predetermined ranking of how internal (and sometimes external) blemishes affect the value of a diamond. There are six significant categories that determine the clarity grade of a diamond:

2. Cut

Diamond cut refers to the proportions of the parts of the diamond, and how well the diamond facets reflects light when exposed to direct light.

Diamond cut is considered to be the most important job of artists and workmen who craft the diamond to make it as symmetric as possible, as well as proportional & polished well to reflect the maximum amount of light.

Also, Read: Diamond Cut vs. Diamond Shape & Most Popular Shapes

3. Carat

Also called Carat Weight, functions as a standard unit of measurement for the weight of diamonds. A carat weight equals 0.20 grams.

With that being said, Carat doesn’t always mean size, a diamond with high carat weight, however, a “good” cut will lose all of its weight in its depth, compared to lesser carat but an “ideal” cut which means a lower carat but “looks” larger.

4. Color

This blog was basically about color, so… let’s skip this one.

Certificate

Diamond grading report/certification is crucial in your purchase decision, and while it’s not a 5th C in GIA terminology, it’s indeed a very important factor, because a diamond graded G in GIA labs, might be higher (maybe F) in other labs like IGI, and all our post here is talking about color in lights of GIA reference, known to be the best grading lab in the world.

Best Clarity for G Color Diamond

When it comes to Clarity, we always recommend getting an eye-clean diamond, this usually appears in most diamonds with SI1 clarity and All VS2 (and above) grades, as this grade of diamonds has slight inclusions that are almost invisible unless examined properly under magnifying equipment.

Also, read: Diamond Inclusion Chart – How it Affects Clarity?

As we will see shortly, the G color is absolutely a great select for relatively high-carat diamonds, i.e. diamonds +1 carat.

This utterly means that for +1 carat, the diamond table will be larger and inclusions would be more visible, that’s why we recommend getting VS2 in G color diamonds.

Best Cut for G Color Diamond

Regarding the Cut, always go with an excellent/ideal cut, even if you’re on a strict budget, go lower in carat to guarantee an excellent cut, always keep this in mind: Better/proper cut means more brilliance and better light reflection!

Best Carat for G Color Diamond

As for carats, this totally depends on your budget, however, remember that higher carat sizes mean more visible inclusions, which means you should go a little above SI1 in some cases.

If you’re getting a diamond with less than 1 carat, in lots of cases, you can go lower to H color and we’ve discussed that in deep details in another post, but in short, color is less visible on diamonds less than 1 carat.

Let’s not forget the shape of the diamond, it sure helps in masking the inclusions. We endorse round cut G-colored diamonds, as this style of cutting separates light, allowing the sparkle to conceal the diamond’s flaws.

Summary: Is G the Best Diamond Color Option?

As we saw, G is a great color pick to guarantee a diamond without any yellow color.

People wouldn’t be able to tell what color a diamond is by just looking at it, even experts!

If you want to make the best bang for your buck, we recommend going with H color, as it’s almost identical (to naked eye) to G color, and this becomes more prominent when mounting it on a white gold or platinum setting.

We hope that whatever your choice is, that we at least helped clarify things out for you and that this article was pretty much enlightening for you!

About the Author

Emily Stone

Emily Stone is a talented professional in the diamond industry, known for her expertise and passion. With a keen eye for detail and a deep appreciation for the beauty of diamonds, Emily has become a trusted authority.

Driven by her lifelong fascination with gemstones, Emily has dedicated her career to understanding the intricacies of diamonds. With years of experience in diamond sourcing and grading, she possesses a comprehensive knowledge that sets her apart.

Emily's impeccable taste and ability to curate extraordinary diamond pieces have made her a sought-after consultant. Her commitment to providing personalized guidance has earned her a loyal clientele.

Through this website, Emily shares her insights and educates others, helping them navigate the world of diamonds with confidence. With her expertise and unwavering passion, Emily Stone continues to make a mark in the captivating realm of diamonds.