What the unheated premium looks like in the 2026 market

The single largest variable in a Ceylon sapphire’s price, after colour, is whether it has been heated. Dealers publishing 2026 price guides converge on a premium of roughly two to five times for an unheated stone over a comparable heated one, with the gap widening above three carats.

Why the gap exists

Heat treatment is standard practice across the trade and has been for a long time. It improves colour and clarity in material that would otherwise be unsaleable. The trade estimate most commonly published is that the large majority of sapphire on the market has been heated.

That is exactly why untreated stones command what they do. A stone that reached a fine royal blue or a true padparadscha colour without intervention is scarce by definition, and scarcity at the top of a market compounds with size.

Read the figures carefully

Published ranges vary widely between sources and none of them are a valuation of your specific stone. Colour, saturation, tone, clarity, cut quality, size and the issuing laboratory all move a price inside any published band. Treat any table you find online as orientation, not as a quote.

Our own pricing guide separates two things deliberately. General market ranges are labelled as general market ranges. Live figures are computed from the stones actually listed on this site. No table on our site mixes the two.

What this means if you are buying

Heat is not a fault. A well chosen heated stone is a sensible purchase and always has been. Concealed heat is the problem, because you end up paying an unheated price for a heated stone.

The protection is simple. Buy with a report from a laboratory you can verify independently, and check the treatment line yourself rather than taking the listing’s word for it.

Our unheated premium guide sets out what untreated colour asks and how the gap widens with size, and how these prices are calculated shows every rule the figures follow.