Are flawless rubies rare?

Yes, naturally flawless rubies are amazingly rare, and they rank among the priciest and most pursued gemstones worldwide. Getting a ruby that has truly no inclusions at all, particularly one that is bigger than one carat with unheated “pigeon’s blood” colour, is basically impossible.

Rubies form deep underground under extreme geological heat and pressure, and that almost always brings internal characteristics along with it, like silk (rutile needles), tiny crystals, or fingerprint-like marks. In the gem market, “eye-clean” rubies, meaning inclusions are not seen with the naked eye, are treated as the baseline for top-tier quality. A genuinely flawless ruby, untreated, can smash auction records simply because it is so scarce.