Purple & Violet Star Sapphire — Price and Buying Guide

Purple and violet star sapphire sit beside pink and blue as color positions in which corundum shows asterism. This guide prices both, as a companion to our color-specific guides for pink and blue star sapphire. Purple and violet star sapphire are listed interchangeably all over the trade, so this guide also sets out what the laboratory reports actually print, and it works from the two stones we hold.

What a Purple or Violet Star Sapphire Is

Star sapphire is corundum that contains needle-like inclusions of rutile, formed inside the crystal as it grew. Corundum is trigonal, so those needles lie in three sets 60° apart, and a domed cabochon gathers their reflections into a star. The needles are part of the crystal and survive cutting whatever shape the stone is given; what the dome changes is the surface those reflections are gathered from. GIA describes the effect plainly: it is "caused by reflections from tiny, needle-like inclusions that are oriented in several specific directions." For the underlying asterism science, see our Star Sapphire Buyer's Guide.

Purple, Violet and Pink Star Sapphire — What the Reports Print

Purple, violet and pink star sapphire get mixed up constantly in listings across the trade. What settles which is which for a particular stone is not a definition but the color value its laboratory report prints — and those values are often compound, which is the ordinary case rather than a borderline one. Our three stones illustrate it, because all three are documented:

• Our 7.99 ct stone: GIA Sapphire Origin Report #5232980224 prints Color: Purple.
• Our 3.40 ct stone: GIA Sapphire Report #1236950499 prints Color: Violet.
• Our 3.26 ct stone: GIA Sapphire Origin Report #2235836233 prints Color: Purplish Pink.

All three reports also print Variety: Natural Star Sapphire and Phenomenon: Displaying Asterism. What none of them prints is a ranking between the three colors, and we do not supply one in place of it. For the pink position in this same family, see our companion Pink Star Sapphire Price Guide.

Purple and Violet Star Sapphire Price by Per-Carat Band (2026)

The table below sets out the per-carat levels purple and violet star sapphire is commonly offered at, and what tends to change between them. The headings matter: these are price bands, not quality grades. No laboratory grades asterism, so nothing here is a grading scale, and our own stones are not placed on it.

Approximate market orientation as at October 2026, for natural purple and violet star sapphire sold loose. These are not measured figures, not a survey, and not our own sales data, and they are not offers. The bands carry no size qualifier, so a larger stone's total price cannot be obtained by reading a band and multiplying. Our own stock is two stones and is described separately below.

Why the Star Itself Is Not a Priced Grade Here

Most price guides for this material price it on the quality of the star. This one does not, and the reason is worth stating plainly.

The trade does price star stones on the phenomenon, and that much is not in dispute. What does not exist is any published laboratory grading of it. GIA states that it "doesn't grade or provide quality analysis for sapphire or other colored stones." The Laboratory Manual Harmonisation Committee, whose information sheets standardize report wording across the major laboratories, publishes none that covers asterism. CIBJO defines the category and stops there. So a description of how a particular star looks is the seller's own opinion — ours included — and no report can be produced to substantiate it.

The bands above are built instead on the three things a report or an invoice actually records: body color, carat weight, and what documentation comes with the stone. The star is the reason the stone exists. It is simply not something any laboratory will grade for you.

What You Actually Get at Each Budget

Under $250 per carat means a pale or greyish body color and usually no laboratory report at all — recognizably purple or violet star sapphire, and priced accordingly.

Between $250 and $600 per carat, more of the purple or violet reads through rather than grey. Documentation at this level is inconsistent, and worth asking about before you buy. Our 7.99 ct stone's per-carat figure falls in this band: $3,990 ÷ 7.99 ct = $499.37 per carat. That is arithmetic about a price, not a position on a quality scale.

Between $600 and $2,000 per carat, the body color is clearly purple or violet, and a report from a recognized laboratory becomes the normal expectation rather than a bonus. Our 3.40 ct stone's per-carat figure falls in this band: $2,380 ÷ 3.40 ct = $700.00 per carat. That figure is arithmetic too.

Above $2,000 per carat you are paying for an even, saturated purple or violet and a full report from a major laboratory — frequently one that carries a geographic origin opinion as well.

Carat Weight and Total Price

Per-carat price and total price are different numbers and it is easy to conflate them. Our 7.99 ct stone is $3,990 in total and $499.37 per carat; our 3.40 ct stone is $2,380 in total and $700.00 per carat. The larger of the two is the dearer in total and the cheaper per carat, which is exactly why both figures have to be quoted side by side. The per-carat figure is what lets you compare stones of different weights; the total is what you pay.

We have not published a size-by-band breakdown, because we have no source for one. Anyone who tells you purple or violet star sapphire costs a specific multiple more per carat at 8 ct than at 3 ct is estimating, and so would we be.

Laboratory Reports

Laboratory-grown star corundum is common in the market and is not always easy to separate from natural material by eye, so a report earns its keep here more than on many stones. What a report does is identify the material, state whether it is natural or laboratory-grown, and record detectable treatment indications. Where the stone came from is a different question, answered by a different service.

Our two stones carry two different GIA papers, and the difference is worth spelling out. The 7.99 ct stone is accompanied by GIA Sapphire Origin Report #5232980224, which places its geographic origin in Sri Lanka. GIA treats that finding as an opinion and says so in its own words: "Any statement on geographic origin is an expert opinion based on a collection of observations and analytical data." The Laboratory Manual Harmonisation Committee makes the same point about reports generally — "All findings described in the report are opinions expressed by the laboratory." Those are opinions reached by qualified examiners, and that is exactly how we present them.

The 3.40 ct stone is accompanied by GIA Sapphire Report #1236950499, which is a different service. Its geographic origin field prints Not Requested. We bought that stone in Sri Lanka and we say so on our own authority: for the 3.40 ct stone, Sri Lanka is our purchase record rather than a laboratory finding, and we do not present it as one.

Both reports print Variety: Natural Star Sapphire and Phenomenon: Displaying Asterism, and both print Additional Results: No Indications of Heating. "Unheated" is the narrow word and it is the one we use: it speaks to heating, and it is not a synonym for "untreated" — we make the narrower claim and leave the wider one alone. For how to read the rest of the document, see our guide to reading a GIA sapphire report.

Origin is also not a quality grade, which is why it does not appear as a column in the table above. Where a stone was formed and how it looks are two separate findings, and pricing one as though it were the other is a habit worth breaking. See our natural star sapphire identification guide.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the difference between purple and violet star sapphire?

Both are color positions corundum occurs in, and the two are listed interchangeably all over the trade. For a particular stone the question is settled by the color value its laboratory report prints rather than by a definition. Our two stones are a case in point: GIA Sapphire Origin Report #5232980224 prints Color: Purple, and GIA Sapphire Report #1236950499 prints Color: Violet. We publish each report's value rather than ranking one color above the other.

How much does a purple or violet star sapphire cost?

Purple and violet star sapphire is commonly offered somewhere between about $50 and $2,000 per carat, and where a given stone falls depends on its body color, its carat weight, and what documentation comes with it. Those figures are an approximate market orientation rather than measured data. Our own stock is two stones: 7.99 ct at $3,990 in total, which works out at $499.37 per carat, and 3.40 ct at $2,380 in total, or $700.00 per carat.

Is star quality graded by a laboratory?

No. GIA states that it "doesn't grade or provide quality analysis for sapphire or other colored stones," and the Laboratory Manual Harmonisation Committee, whose information sheets standardize report wording across the major laboratories, publishes none that covers asterism. A report will record that a stone displays the phenomenon; it will not rate it. So any description of how a particular star looks is the seller's own opinion, ours included, which is why we would rather send you video of the stone than hand you an adjective.

How many purple and violet star sapphires do you have in stock?

Two. A 7.99 ct purple star sapphire at $3,990, or $499.37 per carat, accompanied by GIA Sapphire Origin Report #5232980224, which places its geographic origin in Sri Lanka; and a 3.40 ct violet star sapphire at $2,380, or $700.00 per carat, accompanied by GIA Sapphire Report #1236950499, whose geographic origin field prints Not Requested. Two stones are not a price range and we have not presented them as one.

Shop Our Purple and Violet Star Sapphires

Two stones, currently in stock. Our 7.99 ct natural unheated purple star sapphire from Sri Lanka, $3,990 in total and $499.37 per carat, accompanied by GIA Sapphire Origin Report #5232980224. Its report prints Shape Round and Cutting Style Double Cabochon as two separate fields, and the stone measures 10.87–11.06 × 6.63 mm.

And our 3.40 ct natural unheated violet star sapphire, $2,380 in total and $700.00 per carat, accompanied by GIA Sapphire Report #1236950499. Its report prints Shape Oval and Cutting Style Double Cabochon as two separate fields, and the stone measures 8.64 × 6.76 × 5.69 mm. We can send video of either stone before you buy.

Explore Further

• Star Sapphire — The Complete Buyer's Guide
• Pink Star Sapphire Price Guide
• Blue Star Sapphire Price Guide
• Star Sapphire vs. Regular Sapphire — What's the Difference?
• How to Tell If a Star Sapphire Is Natural
• Violet Sapphire — The Complete Buyer's Guide (faceted, not star)
• What Is a GIA Sapphire Report and How Do You Read One?

Have a question about our purple or violet star sapphires, or want to see one on video before buying? Email crescentgems@gmail.com — we respond within one business day. Free US shipping; $60 flat elsewhere, free over $499. 14-day returns on every order.