Here is the most quietly scandalous fact in the pearl industry: there is no industry-wide grading standard for freshwater pearls. When a retailer says a strand is "AAA", that grade means whatever they have decided it means. Nobody audits it. Nobody defines it. Two sellers can grade the same strand two different ways and neither is technically lying.
This article explains the grading systems you'll see, why none of them bind anyone, and then publishes our own scale in full — because if a grade is just a seller's opinion, the least the seller can do is show their work.
The systems you'll encounter
The A–AAA system
The scale most freshwater and akoya sellers use, running from A (lowest) to AAA (highest). It originated as a rough trade shorthand, and it has no governing body. Because nothing stops anyone from stretching it, you will also see AAAA, AAA+, and "gem quality" — escalations invented by marketing departments, not by any authority. As grade inflation spreads, the letters carry less information every year.
The Tahitian A–D system
French Polynesia legally regulates the export grading of Tahitian pearls on a scale from A (best) to D. It is the closest thing pearls have to an enforced standard — and it applies only to Tahitian pearls. It says nothing about freshwater.
What there isn't
There is no pearl equivalent of the GIA diamond system — no independent laboratory scale that a freshwater pearl grade can be checked against. Labs can certify that a pearl is genuine and whether its colour is natural, but there is no universal quality grade for anyone to certify.
What this means for you as a buyer
It does not mean grades are useless. It means a grade is only as good as the definitions behind it. So when you see "AAA freshwater pearls", the only question that matters is: AAA according to what, exactly? If the seller publishes concrete criteria, the grade is a claim you can hold them to. If they don't, the grade is decoration. Our buying guide shows how to evaluate the pearls directly and treat any letter grade as secondary evidence.
Our scale, published in full
This is our own scale. We wrote it, we apply it, and we publish it so you can check our work — not because any industry body requires it. Nothing here is an industry standard, because no industry standard exists.
| Criterion | What we accept | What we reject |
|---|---|---|
| Luster | Sharp, defined reflections — you can make out your own outline in the surface | Milky, diffuse or chalky return; light that scatters instead of reflecting |
| Surface | Minor marks confined to the drill area | Pitting, cracks, or spotting anywhere on the face that sits forward when worn |
| Shape | Round and near-round within 0.9 mm of true across the strand; baroque and off-round where the listing says so | Off-round pearls sold as round |
| Matching | Pearls within 0.9 mm of one another, with consistent body colour and overtone along the strand | Visible size stepping or colour drift between ends of a strand |
| Nacre | Solid nacre throughout — non-nucleated, no bead core | Bead-nucleated pearls represented as solid nacre |
| Size | Measured at the widest point and listed to the nearest 0.5 mm | Rounded-up measurements |
A standard is only real if it produces rejects: roughly 7 in 10 strands we are offered do not make it past our sorting. The full version of this scale, along with what we pay for pearls and why, lives on our Quality & Value page.
How to use any seller's grade
- Find their definitions. No definitions published anywhere — treat the grade as marketing.
- Check the definitions are measurable. "Very high luster" is not a threshold; "your outline visible in the reflection" is.
- Check the return window. A published standard plus time to verify it yourself is the whole system working. We give 60 days.
Graded against the scale above, listed with size, grade, shape and colour in plain sight: our necklaces.