What Crystal Is This?
Upload a photo and get an instant AI first guess — reading crystal habit, color, and clarity, with honest confidence scores.
How it works
1. Photograph the crystal
Set the specimen so its faces and points catch the light. A single crystal against a plain background reads best.
2. Get an AI first guess
The tool returns likely matches, the crystal habit and color clues it spotted, and a confidence score.
3. Confirm the identity
Check the habit, hardness, and clarity against the suggested candidates, and verify rare or valuable pieces with an expert.
Tips for photographing a crystal
Crystals are all about geometry and light. A good photo shows the shape of the faces and how transparent the stone is.
- Show the terminations — angle the crystal so its points and end faces are visible.
- Backlight transparent crystals gently to reveal true color and clarity.
- Use soft, diffuse light — harsh flash blows out the faces and hides inclusions.
- Capture the crystal habit: the overall geometric shape matters more than a close-up detail.
- Keep the background plain and dark so faceted edges stand out.
- Wipe off dust and fingerprints — they read as inclusions and confuse clarity.
Go deeper with Stone Sense
One free scan is just the start. The Stone Sense app gives you unlimited crystal identifications, a saved collection to catalog your finds, an AI geologist chat for follow-up questions, and badges to grow your crystal knowledge.
- Unlimited scans of crystals, minerals, and gemstones
- Save each crystal to a personal collection
- Ask an AI geologist about habit, color, and clarity
- Track progress with XP and badges
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between a crystal and a mineral?+
A mineral is a naturally occurring solid with a fixed chemical composition and an ordered atomic structure. A crystal is that mineral grown into a regular geometric shape with flat faces and sharp edges. Amethyst, for example, is a crystal form of the mineral quartz. Most crystals are minerals, but many minerals occur as shapeless masses rather than well-formed crystals.
How does AI identify a crystal from a photo?+
It reads crystal habit (the geometric shape, like six-sided quartz points), color and its distribution, clarity, luster, and terminations, then compares them against thousands of reference crystals to return the most likely matches with confidence scores. It is strongest on distinctive, well-formed crystals such as quartz, amethyst, and pyrite.
What are the most common crystals people find?+
Quartz dominates — clear quartz, purple amethyst, yellow citrine, and smoky quartz are all the same mineral. Calcite, fluorite, selenite, and pyrite are also common. Because quartz, calcite, and feldspar are so abundant in the crust, most wild finds turn out to be one of them.
What do clarity and termination mean on a crystal?+
Clarity is how transparent the crystal is, from water-clear to opaque; inclusions and internal fractures lower it. A termination is the natural point where a crystal stopped growing — a single-terminated crystal has one point, a double-terminated one grew freely and has points at both ends. Both are useful ID and grading clues.
Stone Sense is an educational tool. AI photo identification is a helpful first step, but it is not a substitute for certified gemological or mineralogical analysis. Always verify valuable or scientifically important crystals with a qualified professional.