What is Vsauce’s IQ?
No score, no test: the documented record is a Chicago degree, a TED talk and Vsauce videos since 2010.
Vsauce’s IQ has never been published: no test result exists for Michael Stevens, the creator and host behind the channel, and no source attaches a score to him. What is documented is a University of Chicago bachelor’s degree, a 2014 honorary membership in the Sigma Xi research society, the YouTube series Mind Field and 25.2 million subscribers on the main channel as of October 2026.
Vsauce’s estimated IQ
- A University of Chicago bachelor’s degree in psychology (Sigma Xi’s biography says neuropsychology) and English literature; no graduation year and no graduate degree are documented.
- By his own account (Nautilus, December 12, 2017), he was working in a psychology research lab at the University of Chicago when YouTube was invented.
- Named a Sigma Xi Honorary Member in 2014; the society, The Scientific Research Honor Society, describes him as creator and host of Vsauce.
- Created and hosted Mind Field, a psychology-experiment series for YouTube’s subscription service that premiered January 18, 2017 and ran three seasons, ending with the special “What Is the Scariest Thing?” on October 24, 2019.
- The Vsauce channel passed 1 million subscribers in September 2012, won a Webby People’s Voice award in 2014 and the Streamy Award for science and education in 2014 and 2015.
This is an inference from a documented academic and media record, not a test result. A bachelor’s degree, honors for communication and a very large audience narrow the plausible range without pinning it down: audience size and awards show reach and craft, not a measured IQ, and no graduate degree is documented.
- Born
- January 23, 1986, Kansas City, Missouri
- Field
- Science communication; online video
- Education
- University of Chicago, bachelor’s degree in psychology (listed by Sigma Xi as neuropsychology) and English literature; graduation year not documented
- Known for
- Vsauce YouTube channel (2010–present); Mind Field (YouTube Premium, 2017–2019); The Rest Is Science podcast with Hannah Fry (2025–)
- Channel size
- 25.2 million subscribers, main channel (Wikipedia, October 2026)
- Honors
- Sigma Xi Honorary Member (2014); Streamy Awards, science and education (2014, 2015); Webby People’s Voice (2014)
- Circulating figure
- None sourced; no test result published
What an IQ of 125–140 actually means
Set the claim aside for a moment. If someone genuinely scored in this range, here is what that would represent.
| 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 Vsauce is
How smart is Vsauce’s Michael Stevens, judged only by what can be checked? Michael David Stevens was born on January 23, 1986, in Kansas City, Missouri. He graduated from the University of Chicago with a bachelor’s degree in psychology and English literature (Sigma Xi’s biography of him says neuropsychology and English literature); no source gives a graduation year. By his own account he was working in a psychology research lab at the university when YouTube was invented. For how fields of study compare, see average IQ by college major.
The Vsauce channel dates from 2010. Someone registered a YouTube account named “Vsauce” on July 30, 2007 and never used it; Wikipedia says Stevens’s request to claim it was granted on April 16, 2010. In December 2010 he created Vsauce2 (December 7) and Vsauce3 (December 24), later hosted by Kevin Lieber and Jake Roper. The main channel reached 1 million subscribers in September 2012. In 2013 he gave the TEDActive talk “How much does a video weigh?”, and in 2014 Sigma Xi named him an Honorary Member. Vsauce won a Webby People’s Voice award for news and information in 2014 and the Streamy Award in the science and education category in 2014 and 2015. As of October 2026, Wikipedia’s infobox lists the main channel at 25.2 million subscribers and 7.05 billion views, and 33.6 million subscribers across all Vsauce channels.
Mind Field, created and presented by Stevens and produced by Vsauce and The Intellectual Property Corporation, premiered January 18, 2017 on YouTube’s subscription service, then called YouTube Red and now YouTube Premium. The producer’s announcement, dated January 11, 2017, called it IPC’s first full series for a digital platform. Season 2 followed on December 6, 2017 (trailer coverage names the psychologist Philip Zimbardo among the people he meets) and season 3 on December 5, 2018; the last episode listed on Wikipedia, the special “What Is the Scariest Thing?”, is dated October 24, 2019.
Beyond the channel, Stevens presented the nationwide educational stage tour Brain Candy Live! alongside Adam Savage. In November 2025 he and the mathematician Hannah Fry launched The Rest Is Science, a video-first podcast published by Goalhanger and available from November 25, 2025 on YouTube and podcast platforms, with new episodes on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
By Elora Mercer, Celebrity Research WriterFigures checked by Leon Falkner, Data & Research AnalystReviewed by Aarav Vardhan, Editor-in-Chief · Last reviewed October 2026
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Vsauce: 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.
- 1986Born January 23 in Kansas City, Missouri.
- 2010Starts the Vsauce channel after his request to claim the account is granted on April 16; Vsauce2 (December 7) and Vsauce3 (December 24) follow.
- 2012The main Vsauce channel reaches 1 million subscribers in September.
- 2013Gives the TEDActive talk “How much does a video weigh?”
- 2014Named a Sigma Xi Honorary Member; Vsauce wins a Webby People’s Voice award and the first of two Streamy Awards (the second is in 2015).
- 2017Mind Field premieres January 18 on YouTube Red; season 2 follows on December 6.
- 2018Season 3 of Mind Field premieres December 5.
- 2025The Rest Is Science, with Hannah Fry, becomes available on November 25.
- 2026Wikipedia lists the main Vsauce channel at 25.2 million subscribers in October.
Why no figure circulates
Following a claim back to its first appearance is the part almost nobody does — and it is what most people are actually asking.
Vsauce IQ searches lead to a gap, not a number. Michael Stevens has run the Vsauce channel since 2010, when, according to Wikipedia, his request to claim a YouTube account named “Vsauce” that someone had registered in 2007 and never used was granted on April 16. No source has attached an IQ test result to him: his Wikipedia entries, Sigma Xi’s honorary-member page, the producer’s Mind Field announcement and a 2017 Nautilus interview describe degrees, shows and awards, and none mentions a test. That is the opposite of how celebrity IQ numbers usually arrive: a confident figure first, an origin never.
A Vsauce video is not a psychometric instrument, and Michael Stevens’s IQ level cannot be read off the channel. The videos investigate odd questions (Sigma Xi’s biography lists “Why Do We Get Bored” and “How Big Can a Person Get?”), and the producer’s announcement describes Mind Field as recreating famous experiments to illustrate classic findings in psychology. That is research, scripting and explanation: it shows curiosity and range, but none of it is scored against a norm group. In the Nautilus interview Stevens argues that people are smarter than communicators tend to assume, which is a point about audiences. Intelligence is wider than an IQ score, and being good at explaining science is not a score.
The estimated IQ for Vsauce’s Michael Stevens, 125–140 on this site, sits between two other science communicators on video. Bill Nye (120–135) and Mark Rober (130–145) both rest on engineering degrees: Nye holds a bachelor’s degree, Rober a master’s plus years at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Apple. Stevens’s documented education is a bachelor’s-level program in psychology and English literature, followed by a research-lab job, which is why his range overlaps Nye’s at the bottom and Rober’s at the top. A completed doctorate, such as the Columbia Ph.D. behind Neil deGrasse Tyson’s 140–155, sets a higher floor, and no graduate degree is documented for Stevens.
Because no sourced number circulates, there is no direction of error to report, and that is the useful finding. Treat any precise Vsauce IQ score as a guess until it names a test, a date and an administrator. Whether 125–140 counts as genius depends on which genius-level cutoff is used; it is high on any usual scale, and it is still an inference from a record, not a measurement of the man.
How we read a number →None of Wikipedia (Michael Stevens, Vsauce, Mind Field), Sigma Xi’s honorary-member page, the TED page, the producer’s Mind Field announcement, Tubefilter’s Mind Field coverage, the Nautilus interview or the podcast launch coverage reports a score, a school record or a test.
Lists him as a 2014 Honorary Member; says he created and hosts Vsauce (with Vsauce2, Vsauce3 and WeSauce) and holds bachelor’s degrees in neuropsychology and English literature from the University of Chicago; gives nearly 7 million subscribers and over 576 million views as of March 2014.
Stevens says he was working in a research lab in the University of Chicago’s psychology department when YouTube was invented, and “we underestimate how smart people are”; mentions Mind Field season 2. No IQ score or test is mentioned.
Confirms the talk and event (TEDActive 2013, listed as February 2013) and describes him as the creator of the educational YouTube channel Vsauce.
Producer’s announcement: premiere date and platform, “starring Michael Stevens,” IPC’s first full series for a digital platform, and a description of recreating famous experiments to illustrate classic findings in psychology.
Confirms season 2 premiered December 6, 2017 on YouTube’s subscription service, after an eight-episode first season; names Philip Zimbardo.
Confirms the hosts, the publisher (Goalhanger), availability from November 25 on YouTube and podcast platforms, the video-first format and the Tuesday and Thursday schedule; the Apple listing credits Hannah Fry and Michael Stevens (Vsauce) as hosts.
Orientation for the birth date and place (January 23, 1986, Kansas City, Missouri), the University of Chicago degree, the 2010 channel start (account claim granted April 16, 2010), Vsauce2 and Vsauce3, the 1 million milestone in September 2012, the Webby and Streamy awards (ceremonies September 7, 2014 and September 17, 2015), Mind Field’s three seasons and dates, Brain Candy Live! and the October 2026 channel figures (infobox last updated October 2, 2026). Wikidata Q14436762 identifies the American YouTuber and Internet personality born January 23, 1986, aliased Vsauce; the Vsauce brand has its own item, Q3008647.
The sources behind our estimate
The figures that circulate for Vsauce, what we were able to confirm, and where the two diverge.
Queries such as “Vsauce IQ”, “Vsauce IQ level” and “Michael Stevens IQ” are common, but no source attaches a score to him. A number on a celebrity-IQ page counts only if it names a test, a date and who administered it.
No published IQ test result exists for Michael Stevens. His Wikipedia entries for Michael Stevens and Vsauce, Sigma Xi’s honorary-member page, the producer’s announcement of Mind Field and a December 2017 Nautilus interview describe degrees, shows and awards; none mentions an IQ score or a test. The nearest he comes to the subject is in that interview: “I think we’ve learned that we underestimate how smart people are.” It is a remark about audiences, not about himself.
Only the two ends of this site’s range are plotted, because no sourced figure was found to set beside them. A precise Vsauce IQ score from a quiz, generator or ranking page would be a guess; the range here is wider than any single number for that reason.
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.
Vsauce — frequently asked
What is Vsauce’s IQ?
Vsauce’s IQ has never been published: no IQ test result exists for Michael Stevens, the creator and host of the channel. This site’s estimated IQ range for him is 125–140, inferred from his University of Chicago degree, a Sigma Xi honorary membership and the Mind Field series, not from a test.
What is Michael Stevens’s Vsauce IQ level?
There is no documented IQ level for Michael Stevens. He has not published a score, and no source reports that he took a test. The 125–140 estimate on this page means well above average, not a measured result and not a claim that his IQ is any particular number.
Is Vsauce smart?
Michael Stevens’s record shows an accomplished communicator: a University of Chicago degree, a Sigma Xi honorary membership, Streamy and Webby awards and the series Mind Field. That supports an estimated IQ of 125–140, but a channel’s success measures curiosity and craft as well as reasoning, so it is not an IQ score.
Did Michael Stevens of Vsauce ever take an IQ test?
No public record says he did. His Wikipedia entries, Sigma Xi biography and a 2017 Nautilus interview cover his degree, a university research-lab job and his channel, but no IQ test or score. In that interview he says people are smarter than often assumed, a point about audiences, not about himself.
Do Vsauce videos or Mind Field measure IQ?
No. Vsauce videos explore odd questions in science, math and psychology, and Mind Field recreates famous psychology experiments for a general audience. Neither administers or reports a standardized IQ test, and explaining ideas well shows knowledge and communication skill, which an IQ score does not measure directly.
What did Michael Stevens of Vsauce study?
Michael Stevens graduated from the University of Chicago with a bachelor’s degree in psychology and English literature; Sigma Xi lists the first field as neuropsychology. No graduation year and no graduate degree are documented. By his own account he worked in a psychology research lab there when YouTube was invented.
How does Vsauce’s estimated IQ compare with Mark Rober’s or Bill Nye’s?
This site estimates 125–140 for Michael Stevens, 130–145 for Mark Rober and 120–135 for Bill Nye. Stevens sits between them: like Nye he holds a bachelor’s degree only, while Rober has a master’s and worked at NASA and Apple. None of the three ranges comes from a test.
How does my IQ compare with Vsauce?
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 Albert Einstein.
- 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
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Photograph by Newhcrossaint (2025), CC BY-SA 4.0. Background removed for the portrait above. · Photograph by Duncan.Hull, CC BY-SA 4.0. Background removed for the portrait above. · Photograph by Montclair Film Festival (photo by Neil Grabowsky, May 2017), CC BY 2.0. Background removed for the portrait above.
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