What is MrBeast’s IQ?
The IQ numbers online for MrBeast scatter from 106 to 135, modest by celebrity standards and still unsourced.
No MrBeast IQ test result has been published. What can be checked is a 2016 high-school graduation, one unfinished semester at Pitt Community College and the first individual creator to reach 500 million YouTube subscribers (June 12, 2026); the estimates online cite no test, examiner or date.
MrBeast’s estimated IQ
- First individual creator to reach 500 million YouTube subscribers (June 12, 2026, per YouTube’s own blog), from a first upload at thirteen in February 2012.
- Feastables chocolate sold about $250 million in 2024 with a profit above $20 million, according to documents sent to investors and reported by Bloomberg in March 2025; his media business also makes Beast Games, which premiered on Amazon Prime Video on December 19, 2024.
- A documented testing habit: his thumbnail designer says the team develops about 50 thumbnail and title concepts per video and ran a thumbnail A/B test across about 30 videos that favored a closed mouth for watch time.
- No academic anchor: he graduated from Greenville Christian Academy in 2016, left Pitt Community College partway through the fall 2016 semester, and has described his high-school grades as “horrible”; no IQ, SAT or ACT score has been published.
No IQ, SAT or ACT score has been published for MrBeast, so this range is inferred from a record of execution, testing and attention-holding craft, not from any test. That record is partly a team’s and was built in one field over a decade of practice, so it fits a wide band of general ability: treat the range as wide and its edges as soft.
- Born
- May 7, 1998, Wichita, Kansas; raised in Greenville, North Carolina
- Full name
- James Stephen “Jimmy” Donaldson
- Education
- Greenville Christian Academy (2016); Pitt Community College, fall 2016 semester, left partway through
- Known for
- The MrBeast YouTube channel; Feastables; Beast Games
- Subscribers
- 500 million on June 12, 2026, the first individual creator to reach that mark
- Recognition
- TIME100, 2023 (Pioneers)
- Documented test record
- None found: no IQ, SAT or ACT score located
What an IQ of 115–130 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 MrBeast is
MrBeast is James Stephen “Jimmy” Donaldson, born May 7, 1998, in Wichita, Kansas, and raised mainly in Greenville, North Carolina. He uploaded his first video in February 2012, at thirteen, under the channel name MrBeast6000. He graduated from Greenville Christian Academy in 2016 and enrolled that fall at Pitt Community College in Winterville, North Carolina, leaving partway through his first semester to work on YouTube full time. Many profiles say East Carolina University instead; ECU told The News & Observer it has no record of him enrolling.
His breakthrough came on January 9, 2017, with “I Counted to 100,000!”, an almost day-long video of him counting aloud. He became the most-subscribed individual creator on YouTube in November 2022 and the most-subscribed channel on the platform in June 2024, and on June 12, 2026, YouTube announced him as the first individual creator to reach 500 million subscribers. TIME named him to its 2023 TIME100 list, in the Pioneers category, in a profile written by the fellow YouTuber Mark Rober, his partner in #TeamTrees, the campaign the Arbor Day Foundation said had reached its $20 million goal to plant 20 million trees on December 19, 2019.
Away from the channel, he introduced Feastables in January 2022 with MrBeast Bar chocolate. Documents sent to potential investors, reported by Bloomberg in March 2025, put Feastables’ 2024 sales at about $250 million, with a profit of more than $20 million. His media business also makes Beast Games, a competition series that premiered on Amazon Prime Video on December 19, 2024. As of 2023 he employed more than 250 people, from writers to editors to producers, and in December 2023 he and Chucky Appleby launched ViewStats, a YouTube analytics platform.
The method is unusually well documented for a creator. In a YouTube interview reported by Social Media Today in March 2024, Appleby said the team develops about 50 thumbnail and title concepts per video and tests many variations, and that in a thumbnail A/B test across about 30 videos the closed-mouth version led to higher watch time in all 30. The Ringer reported in March 2026 that Donaldson changed his thumbnail approach in 2023 as a result. It is the record of a founder and a team who treat attention as something to test, not guess.
By Elora Mercer, Celebrity Research WriterFigures checked by Leon Falkner, Data & Research AnalystReviewed by Aarav Vardhan, Editor-in-Chief · Last reviewed August 2026
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MrBeast: 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.
- February 2012Uploads his first video, aged thirteen, under the channel name MrBeast6000.
- 2016Graduates from Greenville Christian Academy; enrolls at Pitt Community College for the fall semester and leaves partway through it.
- January 9, 2017Publishes “I Counted to 100,000!”, his breakthrough video.
- December 19, 2019#TeamTrees, launched October 25 with Mark Rober, reaches its $20 million goal, per the Arbor Day Foundation.
- January 2022Introduces Feastables with MrBeast Bar chocolate.
- November 2022Becomes the most-subscribed individual creator on YouTube.
- April 13, 2023TIME names him to the 2023 TIME100 (Pioneers).
- June 2024Becomes the most-subscribed channel on YouTube.
- December 19, 2024Beast Games premieres on Amazon Prime Video.
- June 12, 2026First individual creator to reach 500 million YouTube subscribers.
Where the 106–135 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.
The MrBeast IQ estimates that turn up online come from rating and estimator sites, and no two agree. MyIQScores lists 115–125 and labels it an unverified estimate; The Genius Index prints an “Estimated Cognitive Quotient” of 135; scientific.place gives 111 and credits cogniDNA; IQ Certificate lists 106 on a page that says its list is based on rumors and hearsay. None cites a test, an examiner or a date. For how figures like these usually get made, see where celebrity IQ numbers come from.
What the estimates are built from is a work method, not a test. MyIQScores says its range rests on his “analytical, data-driven approach to YouTube content optimization.” That is a fair description of how his team operates: Chucky Appleby, his thumbnail designer, has described about 50 concepts per video and an A/B test across about 30 videos. It is an observation about process, and process is not a score. The biography adds a second trap. The News & Observer reported in June 2025 that Business Insider, CNN and Encyclopedia Britannica had named East Carolina University as his college, that ECU has no record of him enrolling, and that Pitt Community College confirms he was enrolled in the fall 2016 semester. An estimate that starts from the wrong college starts from the wrong place.
The first-person statements found for this page give no score. In a September 2021 interview with the podcasters Colin and Samir he said he had “horrible grades” and, when people asked what he would do after high school, told them he would be a YouTuber. On the Flagrant podcast in September 2022, as EssentiallySports reported, he said that taking an IQ test and then studying to raise the score was his idea of a date, and he gave no result. Grades and measured ability overlap only in part (see how well IQ predicts school success), and studying to raise a score is the kind of practice that inflates a retake (practice effects on cognitive ability tests), so even a casual result would not be a clean measurement.
Read plainly, the record documents large-scale execution, disciplined testing and a craft for holding attention that the audience numbers reward. Those are real skills and they plausibly draw on above-average general ability, but they do not fix a number: they were built over more than a decade in one field, with a team around him, and business outcomes are only a loose signal of test-measured ability (does IQ predict income?). Placed among the business profiles here, the estimate sits above Jack Ma (108–122), who says he is not good with numbers, and Richard Branson (105–125), who says he would fail an IQ test, and below Palmer Luckey (130–145), whose record includes self-taught hardware engineering that this one lacks.
How we read a number →Estimator sites, a forum poll thread, interviews and news coverage were searched for a named test, examiner or score for MrBeast; none was found, and no SAT or ACT score turned up either. ACIS, Real IQ Test and What’s Your IQ each reach the same conclusion.
Source of the circulating figures: 115–125 (labelled an unverified estimate, updated May 10, 2026), 135, 111 (crediting cogniDNA, archived June 25, 2024), 106 and 110. None names a test, examiner or date.
Lists three circulating figures (about 111 with a 105–117 interval, 115–125, and a 135 “strategic IQ”) and states that no verified score exists.
Pitt Community College confirmed enrollment in the fall 2016 semester; East Carolina University said it has no record of him enrolling. Read via Yahoo News.
First individual creator to reach 500 million subscribers; most-subscribed individual creator in November 2022 and most-subscribed channel in June 2024.
The TIME100 listing (Pioneers) and the #TeamTrees goal of $20 million to plant 20 million trees, launched October 25, 2019 and reached December 19, 2019.
Feastables sold about $250 million in 2024 with a profit above $20 million, according to documents sent to potential investors.
Chucky Appleby’s account of the thumbnail testing (about 50 concepts per video, an A/B test across about 30 videos), the 2023 change it produced, and the December 2023 launch of ViewStats.
His own “horrible grades” remark, and the Flagrant podcast comment about taking an IQ test and studying to raise the score.
Birth date and place, early life, first upload, breakthrough video, Feastables and Beast Games dates, employee count. Wikidata Q57618112 is the same person.
The sources behind our estimate
The figures that circulate for MrBeast, what we were able to confirm, and where the two diverge.
Searches for “Mr Beast IQ” turn up figures from 106 to 135, and no single number dominates: 115–125 on MyIQScores, 135 on The Genius Index, 111 on scientific.place (crediting cogniDNA) and 106 on IQ Certificate. A December 2024 poll thread on Blind lists 110.
None of these pages names a test, an examiner or a test date. MyIQScores marks 115–125 “est.”, calls it an unverified estimate and says it rests on media estimates of his analytical, data-driven approach to YouTube content optimization; the page was last updated May 10, 2026. The Genius Index prints an “Estimated Cognitive Quotient” of 135 and calls his strategic intelligence elite, with no method given. scientific.place shows 111, labelled an estimate and credited to a cogniDNA page archived June 25, 2024, with no method given. IQ Certificate lists 106 on a page that says its list is based on rumors and hearsay. Three other sites that took up the question, ACIS, Real IQ Test and What’s Your IQ, each conclude that no verified score exists. The documented record holds no test at all: it shows a high-school graduation, one unfinished community-college semester and a channel’s growth.
A 29-point spread from 106 to 135, with this site’s 115–130 inside it. MrBeast’s IQ level, on this site’s estimate, sits in the middle of that scatter, and the numbers land on both sides of it: 135 is above what the record supports, 106 to 111 sit below it, and 115–125 falls inside it. That is what figures produced without a test look like: they scatter instead of converging.
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.
MrBeast — frequently asked
What is MrBeast’s IQ?
MrBeast’s IQ is unknown, because no IQ test result has been published for him. This site’s estimate, inferred from his documented record rather than any test, is 115–130. The 106-to-135 figures on estimator sites name no test, examiner or date.
Did MrBeast take an IQ test?
No MrBeast IQ test result has been published, and no named test he sat turned up in the sources checked. On the Flagrant podcast in 2022 he said that taking an IQ test and then studying to raise the score was his idea of a date, as EssentiallySports reported, but no score was given.
Where do the MrBeast IQ estimates online come from?
From estimator and rating sites, not from tests. MyIQScores lists 115–125 and calls it an unverified estimate, The Genius Index prints an estimated cognitive quotient of 135, scientific.place gives 111 crediting cogniDNA, and IQ Certificate lists 106. None cites a test, examiner or date.
Is MrBeast a genius?
The record shows large-scale execution, not a measured genius-level score. He became the first individual creator to reach 500 million YouTube subscribers and his team runs structured thumbnail A/B tests, but no IQ result exists to confirm or rule out the label. This site’s estimate of his IQ level is 115–130.
Did MrBeast go to college?
Briefly. He graduated from Greenville Christian Academy in 2016 and enrolled at Pitt Community College in Winterville, North Carolina, for the fall 2016 semester, leaving partway through it to work on YouTube. East Carolina University told The News & Observer it has no record of him enrolling.
Is there a real MrBeast IQ score on Reddit or in forum threads?
No verified score exists for a thread to point to, so any MrBeast IQ figure quoted on Reddit or other forums is unverified: a guess, or a copy of an estimator site’s number. A December 2024 poll thread on Blind, for example, lists 110 without citing a test.
How does MrBeast’s estimated IQ compare with Richard Branson’s and Palmer Luckey’s?
This site’s estimate for MrBeast, 115–130, sits above Richard Branson’s 105–125 and below Palmer Luckey’s 130–145. All three are inferred from achievement rather than test results, and MrBeast’s sits above Branson’s because his record shows systematic quantitative testing, not because any score exists.
How does my IQ compare with MrBeast?
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 business & tech profiles, starting with Steve Jobs.
- 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 business & tech profiles — same field, same method
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