What was Charlie Munger’s IQ?
IQ numbers keep turning up beside his name, and none of them is his own.
No IQ test result has been published for Charlie Munger, and we found no site that gives him a number. What is documented is a Harvard Law School degree, magna cum laude, earned in 1948 after admission without a bachelor’s degree, and 45 years as Berkshire Hathaway’s vice chairman. His estimated IQ here, 140–155, is inferred from that record, not from a score.
Charlie Munger’s estimated IQ
- Biographical accounts report that a high score on the Army General Classification Test, taken in his Army Air Corps service from 1943, led to orders to study meteorology at Caltech. Caltech confirms the Army Air Forces course, which he began in fall 1943, and the certificate he earned. The score itself has never been published.
- Admitted to Harvard Law School without an undergraduate degree, reportedly after a call from Roscoe Pound, a former dean of the school, and graduated in 1948 magna cum laude.
- His investment partnership, Wheeler, Munger & Co., is reported to have compounded at 19.8% a year over 1962–75 against 5.0% for the Dow.
- Vice chairman of Berkshire Hathaway from 1978 to 2023. Warren Buffett’s 2023 letter calls him the “architect” of the present Berkshire and himself the “general contractor”.
- Set out a “latticework” of mental models in a 1994 USC Business School talk and examined human misjudgment in a 1995 Harvard talk: evidence of breadth, not of a score.
No IQ test result has been published, and the one test the record mentions, the Army General Classification Test, comes without a number, so nothing can be converted. Investing and business results are a poor proxy for a test score, and Munger himself is quoted ranking temperament above brains.
- Born
- January 1, 1924, Omaha, Nebraska
- Died
- November 28, 2023, Santa Barbara, California, aged 99
- Education
- University of Michigan (mathematics, no degree); Caltech Army meteorology course, 1943; Harvard Law School, 1948
- Honors
- Magna cum laude, Harvard Law School (1948); Caltech Distinguished Alumni Award (2020)
- Known for
- Berkshire Hathaway vice chairman, 1978–2023; the “latticework” of mental models
- Law and investing
- Munger, Tolles & Olson (1962); Wheeler, Munger & Co. (1962)
- Test on record
- Army General Classification Test (wartime service): “high score”, number unpublished
- Book
- Poor Charlie’s Almanack (2005)
What an IQ of 140–155 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 Charlie Munger was
Charles T. Munger was born on January 1, 1924 in Omaha, Nebraska. He studied mathematics at the University of Michigan and left in early 1943 to join the U.S. Army Air Corps, which sent him to the California Institute of Technology in fall 1943 for the Army Air Forces’ Ceiling and Visibility Unlimited (CAVU) meteorology course. He earned a certificate in under a year. Caltech gave him its Distinguished Alumni Award in 2020 and quotes him on why he identified with the school: “My life has been dedicated rather intensely to rationality, and that’s a very Caltech value.”
After the war he applied to his father’s alma mater, Harvard Law School, without an undergraduate degree. Accounts of his admission say the dean of admissions turned him down and relented after a call from Roscoe Pound, a former dean of the school and a family friend. Munger graduated in 1948, magna cum laude. He joined the California law firm Wright & Garrett, later Musick, Peeler & Garrett, and in 1962 founded Munger, Tolles & Olson.
In 1962 Munger also began managing money through Wheeler, Munger & Co., an investment partnership reported to have compounded at 19.8% a year to 1975 against 5.0% for the Dow. Warren Buffett wrote in 2024 that Munger “decided that he should take up money management” that year, that they had met in 1959 when Munger was 35, and that in 1965 Munger told him to give up buying fair businesses at wonderful prices and buy wonderful businesses at fair prices instead. Munger became vice chairman of Berkshire Hathaway in 1978, chaired Wesco Financial from 1984 to 2011 and chaired the Daily Journal Corporation. Warren Buffett, whose range on this site is 145–160, called him the “architect” of the present Berkshire.
Munger’s ideas have a name and a date. In a 1994 talk at the USC Business School he argued: “You’ve got to have models in your head. And you’ve got to array your experience—both vicarious and direct—on this latticework of models.” In 1995 he gave a talk at Harvard titled “The Psychology of Human Misjudgment”. His speeches and ideas are collected in Poor Charlie’s Almanack (2005), and Buffett urged shareholders to pick up its new fourth edition in 2024. Munger died on November 28, 2023 at a Santa Barbara hospital, aged 99; Berkshire’s news release that day quoted Buffett saying the company “could not have been built to its present status without Charlie’s inspiration, wisdom and participation.” Charlie Munger’s estimated IQ here, 140–155, starts at an IQ around 140; nothing measured stands behind it.
By Elora Mercer, Celebrity Research WriterFigures checked by Leon Falkner, Data & Research AnalystReviewed by Aarav Vardhan, Editor-in-Chief · Last reviewed August 2026
Charlie Munger: 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.
- 1924Born January 1 in Omaha, Nebraska.
- 1943Leaves the University of Michigan for the U.S. Army Air Corps; after a reported high Army General Classification Test score he is sent to Caltech to study meteorology.
- 1948Graduates from Harvard Law School, magna cum laude, after being admitted without an undergraduate degree.
- 1959Meets Warren Buffett, aged 35.
- 1962Founds Munger, Tolles & Olson and begins the investment partnership Wheeler, Munger & Co.
- 1965Advises Buffett to buy wonderful businesses at fair prices rather than fair businesses at wonderful prices.
- 1978Becomes vice chairman of Berkshire Hathaway.
- 1994–95Gives the USC Business School talk on “elementary worldly wisdom” (1994) and the Harvard talk “The Psychology of Human Misjudgment” (1995).
- 2019Answers a Daily Journal shareholder’s question about IQ and hiring with “You must be thinking about Elon Musk.”
- 2023Dies on November 28, aged 99; Buffett’s tribute in the 2023 letter names him the “architect” of Berkshire.
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.
Charlie Munger’s IQ appears as a number in no source we found, yet IQ figures keep turning up next to his name. They come from a hiring saying: that he would rather have someone with an IQ of 130 who thinks it is 120 than someone with 150 who thinks it is 170. At the Daily Journal Corporation’s annual meeting in Los Angeles in February 2019 a shareholder raised it, and Reuters reported his reply as “You must be thinking about Elon Musk.” The audience laughed and Tesla declined to comment. It is a joke about self-assessment, and it scores nobody. For how figures like these usually take hold, see where celebrity IQ numbers come from.
The story then grew in the retelling. Yahoo Finance’s March 2019 excerpt of a CCN article ran under the headline “Billionaire Charlie Munger Destroys Elon Musk’s Hyperinflated Sense of IQ” and called the reply a “thinly-veiled shot”, yet the excerpt quotes no Munger sentence that names or scores Musk. His recorded remarks on Elon Musk are more measured. Notes from the 2014 Daily Journal meeting have him calling Musk “a genius” and “one of the boldest men ever”. At the 2020 meeting, GuruFocus reported, he said “Never underestimate the man who overestimates himself” and that he thinks “Elon Musk is peculiar and he may overestimate himself but he may not be wrong all the time.”
Other IQ lines attached to Munger circulate without a source. A March 2025 Yahoo Finance article that leads with “Certified Genius” and “Exaggerates His IQ” gives a 2014 remark as “So put me down as saying I’ve always been afraid of the guy whose IQ is 190 and he thinks it’s 250”, followed by “I like to think there’s a little of that risk with Elon. He is a certified genius.” We could not trace it to a transcript, and the numbers describe a hypothetical “guy”. They also drift between tellings: 130 against 150 in the 2019 reports, 190 against 250 here. The Charlie Munger IQ quote about temperament has the same problem. Yahoo Finance (September 2024) prints “A lot of people with high IQs are terrible investors because they’ve got terrible temperaments” and dates it to a 2005 interview it does not name, and the Investment Masters Class quote page prints it with no source at all. Treat all of these as attributed, not verified. None gives Musk an IQ, and none gives Munger one.
That leaves the only test that appears in any account, and it is small. Biographical accounts say that Munger, who had left the University of Michigan in early 1943, scored high on the Army General Classification Test and was ordered to Caltech to study meteorology. The score was never published, so there is no Charlie Munger IQ test result to convert. Compare Bill Gates, whose documented 1590 on the SAT gives his profile a real input to reason from. Munger’s profile has no such input, so its range rests on degrees and results alone.
How we read a number →Confirm the date of death and Buffett’s own words: “inspiration, wisdom and participation”, “architect”, “general contractor”, the 1959 meeting, the 1962 move into money management and the 1965 advice. Neither mentions IQ.
Confirms the Army Air Forces CAVU meteorology course from fall 1943, the certificate, the 2020 Distinguished Alumni Award and the “rationality” remark. Contains nothing on tests or IQ.
Source of the “latticework of models” passage, quoted verbatim. Read as a web transcript, not the original recording.
Reuters records the shareholder’s hiring question and Munger’s one-line reply at the Daily Journal meeting in Los Angeles. The CCN excerpt carries the headline and the “thinly-veiled shot” framing but quotes no Munger sentence about Musk’s IQ; the full CCN article could not be opened.
The 2014 notes are a note-taker’s summary from tweets, not a transcript: “genius” and “boldest men ever”. GuruFocus gives the 2020 remarks on Tesla and on Musk overestimating himself. Neither gives anyone an IQ.
Between them they print the “terrible temperaments” line (dated to an unnamed 2005 interview), the 2014 “IQ is 190 and he thinks it’s 250” line and “a perfect nut with a high IQ”. We could not trace any of them to a transcript or recording, so all are recorded as attributed.
Orientation for the Army General Classification Test, the Roscoe Pound story, Harvard Law 1948, the 1962 firms, the 19.8% and 5.0% returns, the 1995 Harvard talk and the 1978–2023 vice chairmanship. Wikidata confirms the identity. Details not confirmed by a second source are worded as reported.
No school, military, employer or press record of a Munger IQ score turned up in Berkshire’s release and letter, Caltech’s profile, Reuters and Yahoo Finance reports of his meetings, or quote-collection pages. The numbers in his sayings describe hypothetical hires, not readings.
The sources behind our estimate
The figures that circulate for Charlie Munger, what we were able to confirm, and where the two diverge.
No figure circulates for Munger himself. The numbers that circulate sit inside his sayings: 130 who thinks it is 120, 150 who thinks it is 170, 190 who thinks it is 250. A 2019 headline framed a one-line answer about Elon Musk as an attack on Musk’s sense of his own IQ.
Every IQ number attached to Munger is about someone else. Berkshire’s news release on his death and Buffett’s tribute in the 2023 shareholder letter never mention IQ, and neither does Caltech’s alumni profile. Reuters, Yahoo Finance and quote-collection pages carry the hiring saying and the “high IQs … terrible temperaments” line, and none of them gives Munger a score. The only test that appears anywhere is an unpublished “high score” on the Army General Classification Test during his wartime service.
With no circulating figure there is no inflated number to correct and no spread to audit. The band is ours: five points under Warren Buffett’s 145–160 at both ends, overlapping most of it. The numbers inside Munger’s sayings (130, 150, 170, 190, 250) illustrate self-assessment; none reads anyone’s ability.
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.
Charlie Munger — frequently asked
What is Charlie Munger’s IQ?
No IQ test result has been published for Charlie Munger, and we found no site that gives him a number. Our estimated IQ for him, 140–155, is inferred from his academic record, his career and Warren Buffett’s account of his role, not from a score. Every IQ number attached to his name sits inside a saying about other people.
Did Charlie Munger take an IQ test?
No result of one has surfaced. Biographical accounts report a high score on the Army General Classification Test during his wartime service, which led to his Caltech meteorology training, but the score itself has never been published, so it cannot be converted into an IQ.
What did Charlie Munger say about Elon Musk’s IQ?
We found no IQ number from Munger for Musk. Asked in February 2019 about his preference for a 130-IQ hire who thinks it is 120 over a 150-IQ hire who thinks it is 170, he replied, “You must be thinking about Elon Musk,” Reuters reported. In 2020 he said Musk “may overestimate himself but he may not be wrong all the time.”
What is Charlie Munger’s best-known IQ quote?
Two are quoted often. One is a hiring saying: he would rather have someone with an IQ of 130 who thinks it is 120 than someone with 150 who thinks it is 170, though the numbers vary by telling. The other, dated by Yahoo Finance to a 2005 interview, is “A lot of people with high IQs are terrible investors because they’ve got terrible temperaments.”
Did Charlie Munger think IQ matters for investing?
He put temperament first. He is quoted saying that having a certain kind of temperament is “more important than brains”, and his hiring saying prefers a person who judges their own ability accurately over a higher-scoring one who does not. Neither denies that intelligence helps; both rank self-judgment and temperament above raw score.
Was Charlie Munger a genius?
“Genius” is a label for achievement, and his is well documented: a Harvard Law School degree, magna cum laude, in 1948 after admission without a bachelor’s degree, then 45 years as Berkshire Hathaway’s vice chairman. No IQ result has been published to test the label, which is why our range is an estimate.
How does Charlie Munger’s estimated IQ compare with Warren Buffett’s?
Our estimate for Munger, 140–155, sits five points below Warren Buffett’s 145–160 at both ends and overlaps most of it. The gap reflects a thinner documented academic record, with no bachelor’s degree and one completed law degree, not a judgment that Buffett was smarter. Neither man has a published test score.
Did Charlie Munger really get into Harvard Law School without a college degree?
Yes, according to biographical accounts. He had not completed an undergraduate degree, the dean of admissions first turned him down, and the dean relented after a call from Roscoe Pound, a former dean of the school. Munger graduated from Harvard Law School in 1948, magna cum laude.
How does my IQ compare with Charlie Munger?
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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