What was Albert Einstein’s IQ?
No test result exists, and the 160 that circulates has no source.
Albert Einstein’s IQ was never measured: no test score for him exists, and the 160 that circulates online has no source. This site’s estimate from his documented record is 160–180; the earliest IQs printed for him, in LIFE in 1945 and 1954 and in Popular Mechanics in 1962, ran from 192 to 207, none of them from a test.
Albert Einstein’s estimated IQ
- Top marks in mathematics and physics at 17: the 1896 Matura certificate from the Aargau cantonal school in Aarau gave him 6, the highest mark on the Swiss scale, in algebra, geometry, descriptive geometry, physics and history, and a 3 in French.
- The ETH Zurich entrance examination in October 1895, sat at 16 with the director’s permission and two years under the minimum age: the best results in mathematics and the natural sciences, unsatisfactory results in language and history, and an overall result rated insufficient.
- Four papers in Annalen der Physik in 1905, at 26, on the photoelectric effect (received March 18), Brownian motion (May 11), special relativity (June 30) and mass–energy equivalence (September 27).
- A doctorate from the University of Zurich: the dissertation, A New Determination of Molecular Dimensions, was completed on April 30, 1905, and the degree was conferred in January 1906.
- The 1921 Nobel Prize in Physics, awarded in 1922 for his services to theoretical physics, “especially for his discovery of the law of the photoelectric effect.”
Historiometry infers a score from the density and precocity of documented achievement. Catharine Cox’s 1926 study covered people born between 1450 and 1850, so Einstein, born in 1879, was never in it: this range applies her method to him by analogy and cannot produce a measured result. The record is not uniformly high, either: ETH Zurich lists a 1, the lowest mark, in a practical physics course and a diploma average of 4.91, second lowest in his class. Treat the range as an inference about a record, not a fact about a person.
- Born
- March 14, 1879, Ulm, Germany
- Died
- April 18, 1955, Princeton, New Jersey
- Field
- Theoretical physics
- Education
- Aargau cantonal school, Aarau (Matura, 1896); ETH Zurich, 1896–1900; doctorate, University of Zurich, conferred January 1906
- ETH entrance exam
- October 1895, age 16: best results in mathematics and natural science, unsatisfactory in language and history
- Known for
- Special and general relativity, the photoelectric effect
- Nobel Prize
- Physics, 1921 (awarded 1922), for the photoelectric effect
- Nationality
- German-born; later Swiss and American
- On record about IQ
- No test result; Popular Mechanics (1962) says he never took one
What an IQ of 160–180 actually means
Set the claim aside for a moment. If someone genuinely scored in this range, here is what that would represent.
Average is 100 by construction, and about two-thirds of people fall between 85 and 115. Take the test to place your own score on this scale.
| Score range | Classification | Share of people | What it indicates |
|---|---|---|---|
| 85 – 114 | Average | ~68% | The range most people fall into. |
| 115 – 129 | Above average | ~13.6% | Roughly one person in seven. |
| 130 – 144 | Gifted | ~2% | The threshold most high-IQ societies use. |
| Above 144 | Highly gifted | ~0.1% | Figures above this range are extrapolated from the curve rather than measured. |
Percentages are approximate and describe a normal distribution. The same number means different things on tests with different standard deviations.
Thirty questions gives you a measured position on this exact scale — your score, your percentile and the ability breakdown behind it.
Find out in 30 minutes →Who Albert Einstein was
Einstein’s school record is strong in mathematics and physics and uneven elsewhere. In early October 1895, at 16, he sat the entrance examination for the Swiss Federal Polytechnic (ETH) in Zurich, two years under the minimum age of 18, with the director’s permission. ETH Library records that he obtained the best results in the mathematical and natural science subjects, that his results in language and history were unsatisfactory, and that the overall result was rated insufficient. He finished secondary school at the Aargau cantonal school in Aarau, where his 1896 Matura certificate gave him 6, the highest mark on the Swiss scale, in algebra, geometry, descriptive geometry, physics and history, and a 3 in French. He entered ETH that October, at 17.
That Einstein failed mathematics is a myth, and he said so himself. In 1935 a rabbi in Princeton showed him a clipping from Ripley’s column headed “Greatest living mathematician failed in mathematics.” He replied, “I never failed in mathematics. Before I was fifteen I had mastered differential and integral calculus”; Walter Isaacson, writing in TIME in 2007, notes that he said it “correctly.” The Aarau certificate agrees: 6 in algebra and 6 in geometry, where 6 is the best mark. What he did fail was the 1895 ETH entrance examination as a whole, on its language and history parts.
Einstein’s career record is well documented. He completed his ETH studies in July 1900 with a qualification to teach mathematics and physics and a final average of 4.91. In June 1902 he started work as a technical expert at the Swiss Patent Office in Bern, was promoted to technical examiner second class in 1906 and stayed until 1909, when the University of Zurich created an associate professorship for him. In 1905 Annalen der Physik received his four papers, on the photoelectric effect, Brownian motion, special relativity and mass–energy equivalence, between March 18 and September 27, and he completed his dissertation on April 30; the University of Zurich conferred the doctorate in January 1906.
The 1921 Nobel Prize in Physics went to Einstein for the photoelectric effect, not for relativity. The prize for 1921 was awarded to him in 1922, with a citation naming the law of the photoelectric effect. General relativity had followed in 1915, and in 1919 Eddington’s eclipse observations made him world-famous. From 1933 until his death in 1955 he held a position at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey.
Einstein’s range sits among the other scientists profiled here, and the overlap is the point. At 160–180 it overlaps Stephen Hawking’s 150–170 and Marie Curie’s 160–180, and reaches lower than Isaac Newton’s 170–190. Richard Feynman’s 125–150 rests on a documented school score of 125, which is more evidence than Einstein’s case has, and Nikola Tesla’s range is 160–175 against a circulating figure of 310. How rare a score near 160 would be, if it were real, is covered in how rare a high IQ score is.
By Elora Mercer, Celebrity Research WriterFigures checked by Leon Falkner, Data & Research AnalystReviewed by Aarav Vardhan, Editor-in-Chief · Last reviewed October 2026
Albert Einstein: the documented record
The estimate above rests on this record. Every entry here is a matter of public fact, which is more than can be said for the number itself.
- 1895At 16, two years under the minimum age, sits the ETH Zurich entrance examination in early October: best results in mathematics and natural science, unsatisfactory in language and history, overall insufficient.
- 1896Earns the Matura at the Aargau cantonal school in Aarau, with top marks in algebra, geometry and physics, and enters ETH Zurich in October.
- 1900Completes his studies at ETH in July, qualified to teach mathematics and physics; his final average is 4.91.
- 1902Starts work in June as a technical expert at the Swiss Patent Office in Bern, where he stays until 1909.
- 1905His annus mirabilis: four papers in Annalen der Physik, received between March 18 and September 27, and a doctoral dissertation completed on April 30.
- 1906The University of Zurich confers his doctorate in January.
- 1915Completes the general theory of relativity.
- 1919Eddington’s eclipse observations confirm the deflection of light; Einstein becomes world-famous.
- 1921Named the 1921 Nobel laureate in Physics, an award made in 1922 for the photoelectric effect.
- 1933Takes up a position at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey, where he remains until his death.
- 1955Dies in Princeton on April 18, at 76.
Where the 160 figure came from
Following a claim back to its first appearance is the part almost nobody does — and it is what most people are actually asking.
Einstein’s IQ was never measured; the numbers attached to his name come from print, not from a test. The earliest printed figures located are in LIFE. On November 12, 1945, a profile of a 14-year-old Yale graduate said the boy’s IQ of 182 was “23 points lower than Einstein’s,” which puts Einstein at 205. On March 22, 1954, LIFE wrote that “Albert Einstein’s I.Q. is estimated at 192.” Popular Mechanics followed in October 1962 with 207, adding that he had never taken an intelligence test. That is three articles, three different numbers, no test and no named study, and none of the three is 160. The pattern is the one traced in where celebrity IQ numbers come from.
Where Einstein’s 160 comes from is not documented. In 2023 a Google answer read “it’s believed that he had an IQ of 160, the same score as Hawking,” as the essayist Erik Hoel quoted it, and the education sites Vedantu and ScienceABC give 160–190 as an estimate with no study named. Psychologist Russell T. Warne’s 2025 survey of the printed record lists the sources that do state a figure, among them the three magazine pieces above, a 1974 self-published book giving 205 and a 2008 popular book giving 150, and it identifies no source for the 160. The same blank sits under Stephen Hawking’s 160, which is usually presented as matching Einstein’s.
The academic method behind historical IQ figures does not cover Einstein. Lewis Terman published the Stanford revision of the Binet–Simon intelligence test in 1916, and Catharine Cox’s 1926 volume in his Genetic Studies of Genius used historiometry to estimate IQs for 301 eminent people born between 1450 and 1850. Einstein, born in 1879 and alive in 1926, is not among them, and his name does not appear in the volume. Dean Keith Simonton observes that a search for a sampled genius’s surname plus “IQ” will usually surface a Cox estimate; for anyone outside her sample there is none to find. Isaac Newton is in the sample, while Einstein and Stephen Hawking are not. Cox put the limit plainly: the IQ recorded for Newton or Lincoln is “the IQ of the Newton or of the Lincoln of whom we have record.”
Even on its own terms the method ties intelligence to eminence only loosely. Simonton reports that Cox’s own correlation between her IQ estimates and eminence was .25, falling to .16 once the reliability of the data was adjusted for, and that Terman and Oden concluded in 1947 that “intellect and achievement are far from perfectly correlated.” Her estimates drew on records of a person’s first 26 years: ages up to 16, and ages 17 to 26. That is why the range on this page is wide and rests on a record rather than a score, and why a Nobel Prize does not convert into an IQ; see what was measured and what was guessed about the IQ of Nobel Prize winners.
How we read a number →Says a 14-year-old graduate’s IQ of 182 is “23 points lower than Einstein’s,” which implies 205 for Einstein. No test or method is named.
Gives “Albert Einstein’s I.Q. is estimated at 192” in a parenthesis about a child prodigy. An estimate, with no test or method named.
Says Einstein “never took an intelligence test” and “was estimated to have had an IQ of 207.”
Historiometric estimates for 301 people “who lived between the years 1450 and 1850.” Einstein, born in 1879, is not among them and is not named in the volume. Cited to explain the method, not to support a figure for him.
Modern reassessment of Cox’s method. Reports Cox’s own correlation between her IQ estimates and eminence as .25, and .16 after adjusting for data reliability; describes IQ estimates for sampled geniuses as easy to find by searching a surname plus “IQ.”
Surveys the printed figures for Einstein (LIFE 1945 and 1954, Popular Mechanics 1962, a 1974 self-published book at 205, a 2008 popular book at 150) and identifies no source for 160. Calls it “extremely unlikely” that Einstein took an intelligence test.
Both give 160–190 as an estimate and neither names a study or test. ScienceABC describes the range as “posthumously inferred from his work, not a measured value.”
Quotes a 2023 Google answer: “it’s believed that he had an IQ of 160, the same score as Hawking.” Cited for that text only, not for the essay’s own estimate.
The October 1895 entrance examination: neither a university entrance diploma nor 18 years old, the director’s permission, best results in mathematics and natural science, unsatisfactory in language and history, overall insufficient. Completion of studies in July 1900; a 1 in a practical physics course.
Studies began in October 1896; a degree average of 4.91, the second lowest in his class; a position as technical expert at the Bern patent office in June 1902.
Dissertation, A New Determination of Molecular Dimensions, completed April 30, 1905; doctorate and certificate conferred in January 1906.
The 1935 clipping headed “Greatest living mathematician failed in mathematics” and Einstein’s reply that he never failed in mathematics and had mastered differential and integral calculus before fifteen.
The 1896 Matura marks and the Swiss 1–6 scale; the 1895 entrance examination; the Patent Office years 1902–1909 and the 1906 promotion; the dates the four 1905 papers were received; the 1921 Nobel Prize awarded in 1922 and its citation; the Institute for Advanced Study from 1933; and the Zebra Puzzle, published in Life International on December 17, 1962, with the Einstein attribution an urban legend.
No score for Einstein appears in any of the sources above, and Popular Mechanics (1962) states that he never took an intelligence test. Recorded as a documented absence.
The sources behind our estimate
The figures that circulate for Albert Einstein, what we were able to confirm, and where the two diverge.
A Google answer quoted in May 2023 said “it’s believed that he had an IQ of 160, the same score as Hawking.” Education sites give a range instead: Vedantu lists “Estimated 160–190 (not tested!)” and ScienceABC calls 160–190 an estimate “posthumously inferred from his work.” The figure is used as shorthand for genius so routinely that it often functions as a unit of measurement rather than a claim about a person.
There is no record that Einstein ever sat an IQ test. Popular Mechanics said so in October 1962, seven years after his death: he “never took an intelligence test.” Tests existed in his lifetime — the Binet–Simon scale for children in 1905, the Stanford revision in 1916 and the Army Alpha for adults in 1917 — but no score for him appears in any source cited here. This isn’t a case of weak evidence; there is no event to have evidence about.
Online, the figure runs from 160 to 190, a thirty-point spread on a measurement that never took place. Printed figures run higher still: LIFE implied 205 in 1945 and estimated 192 in 1954, and Popular Mechanics estimated 207 in 1962. On the usual scale (mean 100, standard deviation 15), 160 is about 1 person in 31,600 and 205 about 1 in 780 billion (our arithmetic from the normal curve), so the guesses differ by far more than any real test could separate.
Want a number that does hold up? Every figure on this page is somebody’s claim. Take the 30-question test and get a percentile you can check rather than a figure you have to trust.
Albert Einstein — frequently asked
What was Albert Einstein’s IQ?
Albert Einstein’s IQ is unknown: no test result for him exists, and Popular Mechanics wrote in 1962 that he never took one. How much IQ he had is therefore an estimate, not a fact. The 160 that circulates has no source; this site’s estimate from his documented record is 160–180.
What is Albert Einstein’s IQ score: 160 or 190?
Neither is a measured score. Web pages give 160, or 160–190 as an estimate; on the usual scale (mean 100, standard deviation 15), 160 is about 1 person in 31,600 and 190 about 1 in a billion, our arithmetic from the normal curve. That is why his IQ level is stated here as a range from a record; see what an IQ of 160 means and the highest score a test can report.
Did Einstein ever take an IQ test?
No result has ever been published. Popular Mechanics wrote in October 1962 that he never took an intelligence test, and psychologist Russell Warne calls it extremely unlikely: the first test for children appeared in France in 1905, when Einstein was 26, and the first for adults, the Army Alpha, in 1917. See the history of intelligence testing.
Where does Einstein’s IQ of 160 come from?
No source for it has been identified. The earliest printed figures located are 205 (implied, LIFE, November 12, 1945), 192 (LIFE, March 22, 1954) and 207 (Popular Mechanics, October 1962), none from a test, and the web’s 160 cites no study. Cox’s 1926 study, the usual origin of historical IQs, covered people born from 1450 to 1850 and excludes him.
What was Einstein’s IQ at 14, as a child, or when he died?
No IQ score exists for Einstein at any age. What is documented at 14 or 15 is his own statement, made in 1935, that he had mastered differential and integral calculus before he was fifteen. The earliest printed IQ figure located for him is from 1945, almost ten years before he died on April 18, 1955, at 76.
Did Einstein fail math at school?
No. In 1935 he answered a clipping saying he had: “I never failed in mathematics.” His 1896 Matura gave him 6, the top mark, in algebra and geometry. What he did fail, in October 1895 at 16, was the ETH Zurich entrance examination overall: his results in mathematics and the natural sciences were his best, but language and history were unsatisfactory.
Was Einstein’s IQ higher than Stephen Hawking’s, Isaac Newton’s or Leonardo’s?
No ranking is supported. This site’s ranges are 160–180 for Einstein, 150–170 for Stephen Hawking, 170–190 for Isaac Newton and 175–195 for Leonardo da Vinci. They overlap, none comes from a test, and Hawking and Einstein share the same unsourced 160.
How can anyone estimate Einstein’s IQ?
Only by inference. Historiometry, the method Catharine Cox used in 1926, estimates IQ from records of a person’s first 26 years and gives a range with stated limits, not a score. Einstein, born in 1879, falls outside Cox’s 1450–1850 sample, so a range such as 160–180 describes a record, not a test result.
Is Einstein’s riddle an IQ test?
No. The puzzle often called Einstein’s riddle, the one about who owns the fish, is a logic puzzle, not a scored IQ test. Wikipedia reports a version in Life International on December 17, 1962, and calls the story of Einstein inventing it as a boy an urban legend with no evidence. See the answer and the 98 percent myth.
How does my IQ compare with Albert Einstein?
You can find out in about fifteen minutes. The IQ Metrics assessment is 30 questions, scored on the same 100-mean scale used throughout this page, so your result and the estimate above are at least expressed in the same units — one measured, one inferred. Once you have a number, the leaderboard shows where it would sit, and how we score and norm it explains the benchmarking.
Where does this estimate come from?
From the documented record rather than a test — the method is named above and set out in full under how we read a number. Compare it against the other scientists profiles, starting with Nikola Tesla.
- Take the 30-question IQ test — get a measured score and percentile of your own
- Average IQ by country — how the scale behaves across populations
- How IQ Metrics scores its assessment — the method behind our own number
- More on how IQ testing works — reliability, error and what a score can and cannot say
- More scientists profiles — same field, same method
More scientists
Photograph by Ojan (Chalmers University of Technology, April 2008), public domain. Background removed for the portrait above. · Photograph by Σ (Amherst, Massachusetts, April 13, 2017), retouched by Wugapodes and Jonnmann, CC BY-SA 4.0. Background removed for the portrait above. · Photograph by Elke Wetzig (University of Cologne, November 2, 2006), CC BY-SA 3.0. Cropped and with background removed for the portrait above.
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