What is Veritasium’s IQ?
He took a real IQ test on camera: 134 overall, but just 118 on fluid intelligence.
Veritasium’s IQ test result is public: in a video released August 3, 2023, Derek Muller, who created the channel, reported an overall 134 from an official IQ test, the test author’s best estimate of g. It is on camera, not a leak or a rumor. Beside it sit a University of Sydney PhD in physics education research (2008) and 21.4 million subscribers as of October 2026.
Veritasium’s estimated IQ
- In a Veritasium video released August 3, 2023, Derek Muller reports the result of an official IQ test: the test author gives 134 as the best estimate of g, higher than 98.8% of the population. His index scores were 143 (quantitative), 132 (crystallized) and 118 (fluid).
- The range is that overall figure with room for the measurement error of a single sitting, so 134 sits at its middle.
- A Bachelor of Applied Science in engineering physics from Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario (2004); his own CV page lists a graduating average of 90% and a rank in the top 15 of 600 graduates.
- A PhD in physics education research from the University of Sydney, completed in 2008, with the thesis “Designing Effective Multimedia for Physics Education”.
- Recognition from outside YouTube: Sigma Xi Honorary Member (2014), the 2016 Eureka Prize for Science Journalism (shared, for the documentary Uranium – Twisting the Dragon’s Tail), the 2016 Richtmyer Memorial Lecture Award and a 2025 AAAS Kavli Science Journalism Gold Award (shared).
The 134 is the test author’s best estimate of g from this one set of tests, and the author notes that a different test would give a different number; it comes from an unnamed test, published by Muller himself, after practice that he says “really, really helped.” His own indexes span 25 points (118 fluid, 143 quantitative), so no single number describes him, and degrees and awards show achievement, not a score.
- Born
- November 9, 1982, Traralgon, Victoria, Australia; raised in Canada
- Education
- Bachelor of Applied Science in engineering physics, Queen’s University (2004); PhD in physics education research, University of Sydney (2008)
- Doctoral thesis
- “Designing Effective Multimedia for Physics Education” (University of Sydney, 2008)
- Field
- Science communication; online video; physics education research
- Known for
- Veritasium YouTube channel (2011–present); documentaries Uranium – Twisting the Dragon’s Tail (2015) and Vitamania
- Channel size
- 21.4 million subscribers, main channel (Wikipedia, October 2026)
- Honors
- Sigma Xi Honorary Member (2014); Eureka Prize for Science Journalism (2016, shared); Richtmyer Memorial Lecture Award (2016); Streamy Award, science or education (2017); AAAS Kavli Gold Award (2025, shared)
- Reported IQ test
- 134 overall (the test author’s best estimate of g), with 143 quantitative, 132 crystallized and 118 fluid; video released August 3, 2023
What an IQ of 128–140 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 Veritasium is
How smart is Derek Muller, judged only by what can be checked? Derek Alexander Muller was born on November 9, 1982, in Traralgon, Victoria, Australia, and was raised in Canada. He graduated from West Vancouver Secondary School in 2000, where his CV page lists a Governor General’s Bronze Medal as top student, and from Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, in 2004 with a Bachelor of Applied Science in engineering physics; the same page gives a graduating average of 90% and a rank in the top 15 of 600 graduates. His bachelor’s degree is Canadian, and the University of Sydney is where he took his doctorate. For how fields of study compare, see average IQ by college major.
His doctorate was in physics education research at the University of Sydney (2004–2008 on his CV page), completed in 2008 with the thesis “Designing Effective Multimedia for Physics Education.” Its abstract describes a design-experiment method of repeated cycles of design, evaluation and redesign, including an early study of students’ perceptions of a popular science video. Journal papers from the work include “Raising cognitive load with linear multimedia to promote conceptual change” (Science Education, 2008) and “Saying the wrong thing: Improving learning with multimedia by including misconceptions” (Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 2008).
Veritasium began in January 2011, according to Wikipedia; Scientific American dates the first clip to early 2011, and the American Association of Physics Teachers and the Sydney alumni magazine also say 2011. Muller joined the team of the Australian science program Catalyst and opened a second channel, 2veritasium, in July 2012. He presented the documentary Uranium – Twisting the Dragon’s Tail (aired July–August 2015), which shared the 2016 Eureka Prize for Science Journalism with Sonya Pemberton, Wain Fimeri and Steve Westh (announced September 1, 2016). From April 2017 he appeared as a correspondent on Netflix’s Bill Nye Saves the World, and he presented in the documentary Vitamania: The Sense and Nonsense of Vitamins.
Recognition runs across fields. Sigma Xi named him an Honorary Member in 2014. The American Association of Physics Teachers announced him as the 2016 Richtmyer Memorial Lecture Award recipient on September 2, 2015. Veritasium won a Streamy Award for science or education in 2017. The 2025 AAAS Kavli Science Journalism Awards gave a Gold Award in Video In-Depth Reporting (more than 20 minutes) to “How One Company Secretly Poisoned The Planet,” published May 14, 2025, credited to Gregor Čavlović, Derek Muller and Zoe Heron and announced November 13, 2025. As of October 2026, Wikipedia lists the main channel at 21.4 million subscribers and more than 4.6 billion views, up from more than 16 million subscribers in the Sydney alumni magazine’s November 2024 profile.
By Elora Mercer, Celebrity Research WriterFigures checked by Leon Falkner, Data & Research AnalystReviewed by Aarav Vardhan, Editor-in-Chief · Last reviewed October 2026
Veritasium: 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.
- 1982Born November 9 in Traralgon, Victoria, Australia.
- 2004Graduates from Queen’s University with a Bachelor of Applied Science in engineering physics; his CV page dates his Sydney PhD to 2004–2008.
- 2008Completes the University of Sydney PhD; the thesis is “Designing Effective Multimedia for Physics Education.”
- 2011Creates the Veritasium YouTube channel in January.
- 2014Named a Sigma Xi Honorary Member.
- 2016Shares the Eureka Prize for Science Journalism for Uranium – Twisting the Dragon’s Tail (September 1) and receives the AAPT Richtmyer Memorial Lecture Award.
- 2017Veritasium wins the Streamy Award for science or education; Muller joins Bill Nye Saves the World as a correspondent in April.
- 2023The video in which he reports an official IQ test is released August 3; the test author’s best estimate of g is 134.
- 2025“How One Company Secretly Poisoned The Planet” (May 14) wins an AAAS Kavli Gold Award, announced November 13.
- 2026Wikipedia lists the main Veritasium channel at 21.4 million subscribers in October.
Where the 134 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 Veritasium IQ test result comes from one place: a video in which Derek Muller takes an official IQ test and reports what he got. YouTube shows it as “I took an IQ test to explain what’s wrong with them,” published August 3, 2023, at 34 minutes 28 seconds; Veritasium’s website carries it as “I Took an IQ Test to Find Out What it Actually Measures” and files it under January 15, 2024. Muller is credited as a writer, filmmaker and producer. He opens by saying he had always thought of his own IQ as just a little above average, practices with online tests, then sits an official test; the test room is not filmed, to protect the questions.
Near the 28-minute mark the results come: 143 on a quantitative index, 132 on a crystallized-intelligence index and 118 on a fluid-intelligence index (higher than 88.5% of the population). Then the test’s author gives the overall figure: the best estimate of g from this set of tests is 134, higher than 98.8% of the population, and a different test would give a different number. So the 134 is an overall estimate from one battery, not a fixed property of the man. Those percentiles are what a scale with a standard deviation of 15 produces (a 134 sits near the 98.8th percentile and a 118 near the 88.5th), the same scale as the IQ bell curve. The spread between indexes is the more telling detail: a full-scale IQ and its index scores answer different questions, and a 25-point gap between fluid and quantitative shows why one overall number is a summary, not a profile.
The figure is real, but its paper trail is thin. Nothing public names the test or the sitting date, and Muller practiced beforehand, which the video itself sets out to examine; practice effects on cognitive tests are one reason a retest can differ, and any single sitting carries a margin of error of several points. That is why this page gives 128–140 around the reported 134, not a bare number. It also reverses the usual pattern in how celebrity IQ numbers arrive: here the number and the test both exist, and the weakness is the missing detail, not an invented figure.
Derek Muller’s estimated IQ, 128–140 here, sits in the same band as Brian Cox (125–140, a completed physics doctorate) and Vsauce (125–140, a bachelor’s degree and a long media record), and below Neil deGrasse Tyson (140–155, a Columbia doctorate). The evidence differs: Cox, Vsauce and Tyson rest on academic and career records with no test result, while Muller’s range is anchored on a reported score and then checked against a doctorate and a career. A science channel is not a psychometric instrument; the videos show explanation, research and craft, and the test result is a separate thing he chose to publish.
How we read a number →No independent score report, test name or norm group is public; the figures exist only in Muller’s own video.
The video itself. At about 10:42 Muller says he is taking an official IQ test that morning, and the test room is not filmed, to protect the questions; at about 27:38 he says he got his results from the author of the test; at about 27:58 he gives 143 quantitative, 132 crystallized and 118 fluid; at about 28:28 the author gives the best estimate of g from this set of tests as 134, higher than 98.8% of the population, and notes that a different test would give a different number. Earlier he says he had always considered his IQ a little above average and would practice first. The test is not named.
The channel’s own filing of the same video. Credits Derek Muller as writer, filmmaker and producer; thanks Cecil R. Reynolds, Stuart J. Ritchie, Steven Piantadosi, Alan S. Kaufman and Jay Zagorsky; lists the references (Kaufman, IQ Testing 101; Duckworth et al. 2011 on test motivation; Kulik et al. 1984 on coaching). Does not state his score or name the test.
Education: BSc engineering physics, Queen’s University, Canada (2000–2004), graduating average of 90% and top 15 of 600 graduates; PhD in physics education research, University of Sydney (2004–2008), thesis “Designing Effective Multimedia For Physics Education”; West Vancouver Secondary School (1997–2000) and a Governor General’s Bronze Medal. About page: over 20.9 million subscribers (undated), Streamy for science or education in 2017.
Confirms the thesis title, institution and department, and the abstract (design-experiment method). The Publications page lists the 2008 Science Education and Journal of Computer Assisted Learning papers and four earlier first-author journal papers.
Gives a Bachelor of Applied Science in Engineering Physics from Queen’s University, a University of Sydney physics PhD completed in 2008, the thesis title, the start of the channel in 2011 and “more than 16 million subscribers” at the time.
Eureka: the Department of Industry, Innovation and Science Eureka Prize for Science Journalism went to Sonya Pemberton, Wain Fimeri, Dr. Derek Muller and Steve Westh for Uranium – Twisting the Dragon’s Tail. Kavli: Gold Award, Video In-Depth Reporting (more than 20 minutes), for “How One Company Secretly Poisoned The Planet”, Veritasium, May 14, 2025, credited to Gregor Čavlović, Derek Muller and Zoe Heron.
Sigma Xi lists him as a 2014 Honorary Member. The AAPT announcement confirms the 2016 Richtmyer Memorial Lecture Award, his Queen’s engineering physics degree, his University of Sydney physics education research PhD (2008) with the same thesis title, that he is a native of Australia raised in Canada, and that he began Veritasium in 2011.
Orientation for the birth date and place (November 9, 1982, Traralgon), West Vancouver Secondary School (2000), Veritasium created in January 2011, 2veritasium (July 2012), Bill Nye Saves the World (from April 2017), Vitamania, the 2017 Streamy Award for Veritasium and the October 2026 channel figures (infobox: 21.4 million subscribers, 4.67 billion views). Wikidata Q16221926 is “Derek Muller”, “Australian-born Canadian science communicator”, born 1982-11-09, aliases including Veritasium; it is not Q108380637, a different Derek Müller (researcher, born 1965).
The sources behind our estimate
The figures that circulate for Veritasium, what we were able to confirm, and where the two diverge.
Searches for “Veritasium IQ”, “Veritasium IQ score” and “Derek Muller IQ” lead to one source: Muller’s own video, titled “I took an IQ test to explain what’s wrong with them” on YouTube (Veritasium’s website carries it as “I Took an IQ Test to Find Out What it Actually Measures”). In it he reports 134 overall.
A test result exists, and Derek Muller published it himself. In the video he says he took an official IQ test and got his results from its author. He gives 143 on a quantitative index, 132 on a crystallized-intelligence index and 118 on a fluid-intelligence index, and the author puts the best estimate of g from this set of tests at 134, higher than 98.8% of the population, while noting that a different test would give a different number. Nothing public names the test or gives an independent score report or norm group; the Veritasium video page thanks named experts but does not say which of them, if any, wrote or gave it.
134 is the middle of the 128–140 range on purpose: the range is the overall figure with a margin for measurement error, so the two do not disagree. The index scores run wider, from 118 to 143, which is why one overall number should be read as a summary, not a profile.
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.
Veritasium — frequently asked
What is Veritasium’s IQ?
Derek Muller, who created the Veritasium channel, reported an overall IQ of 134 from an official test in a video released August 3, 2023. The test’s author gave that as the best estimate of g, higher than 98.8% of the population. This site’s estimated range is 128–140, not a certified result.
What is Derek Muller’s IQ?
Derek Muller reports 134 overall, with 143 on a quantitative index, 132 on a crystallized-intelligence index and 118 on a fluid-intelligence index. The figure is the test author’s best estimate of g, and the author notes a different test would give a different number. This site estimates 128–140, so 134 sits at the middle.
What was the Veritasium IQ test result?
In the video, Muller takes an official IQ test and gets his results from its author: 143 quantitative, 132 crystallized, 118 fluid, and 134 overall, which is higher than 98.8% of the population. He practiced beforehand, saying the training “really, really helped,” so treat the score as a measurement with some uncertainty.
Which IQ test did Derek Muller take?
No public source names it. In the video he says only that he took an official IQ test and received his results from its author. Veritasium’s video page thanks experts including Alan S. Kaufman and Cecil R. Reynolds but does not say whether either of them wrote or gave the test.
Is Veritasium’s Derek Muller a genius?
A 134 is high: the test author puts it above 98.8% of the population. Whether it counts as genius depends on which cutoff is used, because genius labels are conventions, not test categories. The record also shows a physics-education PhD, a Eureka Prize for science journalism and a very large audience, none of which is a score.
Does Veritasium measure IQ, and is the channel an IQ test?
No. Veritasium is a science-communication channel: its videos explain physics, engineering and research, and none is a standardized test. The IQ figure comes from a single video in which Muller took an official test himself. Explaining science well shows knowledge and craft, which an IQ score does not measure directly.
What did Derek Muller study?
Derek Muller earned a Bachelor of Applied Science in engineering physics from Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario (2004) and a PhD in physics education research from the University of Sydney (2008). His thesis was “Designing Effective Multimedia for Physics Education.” He started the Veritasium channel in 2011.
How does Veritasium’s estimated IQ compare with Vsauce’s or Brian Cox’s?
This site estimates 128–140 for Derek Muller, 125–140 for Vsauce’s Michael Stevens and 125–140 for Brian Cox, so the three overlap almost entirely. Muller’s range rests on a published test result; the other two rest on academic and career records, with no test result published.
How does my IQ compare with Veritasium?
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
More scientists
Photograph of Michael Stevens by Wikimedia Commons user 阿謙 (July 17, 2016), CC BY 3.0. Background removed for the portrait above. · 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.
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