Jade vs emerald: how they differ

Jade and emerald are unrelated stones that share a color. Emerald is a transparent gem, the green variety of the mineral beryl, cut with flat facets and priced by the carat. Jade is one of two tough, fine-grained stones, jadeite or nephrite, translucent at best, carved or cut as cabochons, beads and bangles, and usually priced by the piece. When people weigh jade vs emerald, they are choosing between two different kinds of object as much as two materials.

Jade vs emerald side by side

The figures below come from GIA’s reference pages for emerald and jade.

	Emerald	Jade
Mineral	Green to bluish green beryl, Be3Al2Si6O18, the same species as aquamarine	Two unrelated minerals: jadeite, a pyroxene (NaAlSi2O6), and nephrite, an amphibole of calcium, magnesium and iron
Mohs hardness	7.5 to 8	Jadeite 6.5 to 7, nephrite 6 to 6.5
Toughness	Fair to good	Exceptional for both
Specific gravity	2.72	Jadeite about 3.34, nephrite 2.95
Refractive index	1.577 to 1.583	Jadeite 1.666 to 1.680, nephrite 1.606 to 1.632
Transparency	Transparent, and the most prized stones are highly transparent	Never fully transparent. Jadeite runs from opaque to semitransparent and the best is semitransparent
Typical cut	Faceted, most often the rectangular step cut named after it	Cabochons, beads, bangles and carvings, rarely faceted
Typical flaws	Inclusions visible to the eye, and fissures	Cloudy or opaque patches, uneven color and cracks
Usual treatments	Fractures filled with oil, resin or polymer	Acid bleaching with polymer filling (type B), dye (type C), coatings and heat
Price logic	By carat weight, rising steeply with size	By the piece, on color, translucency and texture

Stones too light in color are called green beryl, not emerald, according to GIA. On the jade side, gemologists use “jade” as a generic term for jadeite and nephrite, which happen to look and behave alike.

How to tell jade from emerald by looking

Look through it. Emerald is see-through. Jade glows without being see-through: even the finest jadeite has a soft glow in place of clarity.

Look inside it. Emeralds almost always contain inclusions visible to the eye. The trade calls the mossy internal pattern jardin, or garden, and accepts it. GIA notes that emeralds with no eye-visible inclusions are very rare. Jade shows no such garden. Its faults are cloudy patches and uneven color.

Look at the shape. Flat facets with crisp edges point to emerald. A smooth dome, a bead, a bangle or a carving points to jade.

Feel the weight. Emerald is the lighter stone. A jadeite cabochon weighs about a fifth more than an emerald of the same dimensions.

Put plainly, a transparent, faceted green stone is not jade, and a cloudy, translucent, carved green stone is not emerald. That does not make either one genuine. Glass and other imitations exist for both, so these checks only narrow things down. A gemologist can separate the two in minutes from the refractive index, and a laboratory report settles what a stone is.

Why the two get confused

The names overlap. GIA describes the finest jadeite, imperial jade, as having an emerald-green color. In the Chinese trade the word for emerald, zumu lü (祖母绿), doubles as a color name for top green jadeite: some dealers use it as another name for imperial green, others for a full green with a slight blue tint. Machine-translated listings sometimes turn it into plain “emerald”. A jade described this way is still jadeite.

The colors also share a cause. Emerald’s green comes from trace chromium, vanadium and iron, and the vivid green of imperial jadeite comes from chromium. Most jade is nowhere near that color, and the full range is covered in jade colors.

Hardness, toughness and everyday wear

Hardness and toughness are different properties, and the two stones split them.

Emerald is harder, so it resists scratching better. It is less tough: GIA rates its toughness as fair to good and says it needs more care in wear than ruby or sapphire. The trimmed corners of the emerald cut are there to protect a brittle, fractured stone.

Jade is softer, so it scratches more easily than emerald. It is far tougher: GIA describes jadeite and nephrite as exceptionally tough and resistant to breaking and chipping. That toughness suits the forms jade is cut in, the solid stone bangle above all. Tough does not mean unbreakable, and the limits are set out in jade hardness and toughness.

If you want	Emerald	Jade
Resistance to scratches	Stronger	Weaker
Resistance to knocks and chipping	Weaker, needs more care in wear	Stronger
A transparent, faceted stone	Yes	No
A solid stone bangle, bead strand or carving	Not its usual form	Its usual forms

Treatments to ask about

Both stones are routinely treated, in different ways, and for both the right question is what has been done to the stone.

GIA cites estimates that 90 percent or more of emeralds are fracture-filled with oils, resins or polymers to hide fissures. The fillers can be damaged by heat, light and chemicals.

Jade’s treatments are bleaching in acid followed by polymer impregnation, called type B, and dyeing, called type C, along with coatings and heat. Untreated jade, type A, may carry only a surface wax. The classes and how they are detected are explained in type A, B and C jade.

Cleaning follows from this. Emeralds should not go in ultrasonic or steam cleaners, which can open fractures and drive out fillers. Untreated jade tolerates both. Warm soapy water is safe for either.

How each is priced

Emerald is sold by carat weight, and quality for quality the price rises dramatically with size. Jadeite is usually sold by the piece, on color, translucency and texture, though size also multiplies the value of top green jadeite. Carvings are judged on artistry as well.

Both sit among the most expensive gems at the top end. GIA says the best green jadeite can command millions of dollars, and the record for jade jewelry is US$27.44 million for a jadeite bead necklace sold at Sotheby’s Hong Kong in 2014, as listed by Guinness World Records. Below that level the price of either stone depends on quality, so the name alone tells you nothing about value. What drives jade prices is covered in why jade is so expensive.

Which suits what kind of wear

Neither stone is the better one. They do different jobs.

• For a piece worn every day and knocked about, such as a bangle that never comes off, jade’s toughness is the relevant property. Its polish can scratch, since it is the softer stone.
• For a faceted stone with transparency and sparkle, emerald is the one that offers it. It asks for more care in wear and gentler cleaning.
• For carving, beads and solid stone forms, jade is the material these are made in.
• For tradition, each has its own. Emerald is the birthstone for May and the gem for the 20th and 35th wedding anniversaries. Jade is the gem for the 12th anniversary, and in Chinese culture it is associated with clarity of mind, purity of spirit and good fortune. These are customs and beliefs, not properties of the stones.

Their histories differ as well. The first known emerald mines were in Egypt, and emeralds from what is now Colombia reached Europe with the Spanish in the 16th century, according to GIA. Gem-quality jadeite comes chiefly from northern Myanmar, and nephrite from China, Russia, Canada and elsewhere.

Whichever you are looking at, anything of real value should come with a report from a gemological laboratory naming the stone and its treatments.