Crystal Identifier
Found a crystal and want to know what it is? Pick the clues you can see — colour, hardness, lustre, transparency — and Gemdle ranks the possible matches from its library of crystals. It's a guided shortlist to confirm by hand, not a one-tap "AI" answer (no photo can do that reliably). Searches 252 crystals.
How to identify a crystal step by step
- Crystal habit & shape — how does it grow? Six-sided prisms (quartz), cubes (pyrite, fluorite), blades, needles or botryoidal blobs? Habit is one of the most telling clues.
- Colour — note the dominant colour, but remember one species can come in many.
- Lustre — glassy (vitreous), metallic, waxy, pearly or dull?
- Hardness — does a steel knife (≈5.5) scratch it? Does it scratch glass (5.5) or a quartz point (7)?
- Transparency — clear, translucent or opaque?
Popular crystals to compare against
Frequently asked questions
What is the best way to identify a crystal?
Combine several clues rather than relying on colour alone: crystal habit (the shape it grows in), hardness, lustre and transparency together usually point to one or two species you can then confirm.
Can you identify a crystal from a photo alone?
Not reliably. Geologists examine a specimen from several angles and test hardness, streak and density. A photo gets you a shortlist; Gemdle's identifier uses the same observable clues to rank possibilities you then confirm in person.