What is Carat Weight (ct) And Carat Total Weight (ctw)?

If you had come across the terms “carat weight” and “carat total weight” when shopping for diamond jewelry and don’t know what they mean, you better stop and read this article in full.

The reason I’m highlighting this is that many consumers get misled by advertising claims and ambiguous jewelry descriptions. In the hands of an unethical jeweler, the use of “total carat weight” and marketing lingo can be used to dupe unsuspecting buyers.

So, What is What? Aren’t They The Same Thing?

Carat weight, denoted as “CT” or “CW” represents the metric weight of a single diamond. As you had learned earlier, one carat simply equals to two hundred milligrams and there is nothing complicated to it.

When you are dealing with solitaire diamond rings or any piece of jewelry featuring a single gemstone, any descriptions of carat weight simply refers to the weight of the individual diamond found in the jewelry piece.

You can also find an accurate value of the diamond’s carat weight in an accompanying lab grading report. As a reminder, you should only buy diamonds with proper grading reports from reliable labs like GIA or AGS only.

Grading report of a recently purchased DIY engagement ring. Carat weight is circled in red.

What is Carat Total Weight And Why Is It Used?

When a piece of jewelry is set with multiple diamonds, things start to get a little more complicated. That’s where you start to see the term “carat total weight” being thrown around in jewelry descriptions.

In a nutshell, total diamond weight or carat total weight refers to the weight summation of all the diamonds found in the piece of jewelry. It is usually abbreviated as “CTW”, “CWT”, “TW” or “TDW” and they all refer to the same thing.

When you come across jewelry using CTW in their description, make sure that you double check details of the diamond sizes used. It’s important that you don’t skip this step and I will explain why in a moment.

In the trade, there are 2 main reasons behind using the CTW nomenclature. The first is for convenience and the second is to make a piece of jewelry sound impressive. Now, let’s do a quick test.

Imagine you are reading a classified ad; which of the following descriptions would sound better to you?

1) Get more for less! For a limited time, buy this whopping 3 carats engagement ring (TW) for only $8,000!

2) Get more for less! Buy this engagement ring featuring 5 diamonds weighing 0.6 carats each. Only $8,000!

Prices for Larger Diamonds Are Astronomical Compared to Melees

Due to the pricing mechanisms, a single large diamond would cost a lot more than the equivalent weight made up of smaller diamonds.

As you can see, five 0.60 carat diamonds bought individually would only cost a total of $2,320 * 5 = $11,600. In contrast, the single 3 carat stone costs almost 5 times more with a price tag of $58,030.

The thing is, most consumers prefer buying bigger diamonds (regardless of whether their budget is realistic or not) and jewelers know it. For this reason, most businesses market their jewelry using total carat weight because it sounds very impressive and the low prices provide a false impression of a good deal.

Under intense pressure selling by unethical salespeople, consumers who aren’t familiar with terminologies often get tricked into thinking they are getting a great deal when they are actually not.

If you want to get a feel of prices for different carat weights, check out Blue Nile and James Allen. Both vendors offer superb search tools and highly competitive prices in the market.

Let’s Do Some Math to Understand “Total Carat Weight”

A parcel of melee diamonds (left) versus a single 2 carat diamond (right).

The total carat weight of a 100 small diamonds (aka melees) each weighing two points (0.02 carats) is the same as the weight of a single 2 carat diamond.

Here’s a simple equation that shows this: 100 * 0.02 carats = 1 * 2.00 carats

Even though the idea of owning a hundred diamonds might seem attractive to some people, the single large stone is more valuable due to rarity factors.

In fact, a parcel of 100 two-pointer F color VS clarity melees would only cost around $1,200. In contrast, a well cut 2 carat F VS2 diamond would cost upwards of $25,000.

1 Important Question to Ask When Buying Jewelry With Multiple Stones

If you are buying preset rings consisting of multiple diamonds and there is a center stone (usually the largest), make sure you ask for full details of that diamond. That’s because the center diamond typically accounts for the bulk of the ring’s cost.

This would enable you to estimate the price of the ring and consequently, allow you to size up the deal properly.

With that said, I know most jewelers do not want to mislead consumers with malicious intent. Most of them simply want to offer consumers a choice of buying something that sounds grandiose without having to break the bank.

As a consumer, the onus is often on you to pay attention to details when you are reading a product description. You don’t want to make the wrong assumptions and inadvertently “mislead” yourself.

To wrap things up, you shouldn’t be afraid of the term “carat total weight” because it can be useful information once you know what it stands for.

If you are shopping for a diamond ring, I recommend JamesAllen.com. They have a great selection of beautiful settings and offer you the ability to see and interact with diamonds like never before.

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