Is 144 a high IQ?
Yes. An IQ of 144 is exceptionally high, well inside the top 1% of the population. It is beyond the entry level of Mensa and Intertel.
Where 144 sits on the bell curve
An IQ of 144 is 44 points above the average of 100, or 2.93 standard deviations. It is higher than about 99.8% of people of the same age, shown by the shaded area below. This is the far right tail of the curve, where only a few people in every thousand score.
On other IQ scales, the same result would be about 147 on a test with a standard deviation of 16, such as older editions of the Stanford-Binet, and 170 on the Cattell scale, which uses 24. Why scales differ.
IQ 144 meaning: a closer look
An IQ of 144 is higher than about 99.8% of people, with roughly one in 596 scoring at this level or above. It is one point short of three standard deviations above the average. In a stadium of 50,000 people, only about 80 would score 144 or higher. Very high scores like this are more variable between tests than average scores, because tests have fewer very difficult questions to separate people at the top.
Are people with a 144 IQ more intense? The overexcitability debate
The Polish psychiatrist Kazimierz Dabrowski proposed that some people have "overexcitabilities": unusually strong intellectual, imaginational, emotional, sensual or psychomotor responses. Many gifted-education sources treat these as a sign of giftedness. A 2016 meta-analysis by Winkler and Voight found that gifted samples did score higher, with medium differences for intellectual and imaginational intensity, small ones for emotional and sensual, and no significant difference for psychomotor. A 2025 meta-analysis of 230 effects from 20 studies found the link was strongest for intellectual overexcitability, but absent when giftedness was defined by measured intelligence.
So if you have an IQ of 144 and also feel things intensely, you are not unusual, but the research does not show that a high IQ causes intensity, or that intensity is a reliable sign of high ability. The 2025 review warns that publication bias probably inflates the differences, and it found them only among high school students, not younger children or adults. A 144 IQ describes reasoning ability; how curious, imaginative or sensitive you are is a separate question.
Sources: Winkler and Voight (2016), "Giftedness and overexcitability: Investigating the relationship using meta-analysis", Gifted Child Quarterly, 60(4), 243 to 257; Olszewski-Kubilius et al. (2025), "A meta-analysis of research on the relationship between overexcitabilities and giftedness", Gifted Child Quarterly, 70(2), 111 to 138.
What 144 looks like among real people
If you lined up 100 people of your age, all or nearly all of them would score lower than 144. You would need a group of about 596 people to expect one person scoring this high or higher. The orange dot marks your place in the line.
In a school of 1,000 pupils, you would expect only about 4 to score 140 or higher.
How precise is a score of 144?
No IQ test measures to the exact point. On a professional test, a result of 144 usually comes with a likely range of about five points either way: 139 to 149. That range runs from the 99.5th to the 99.9th percentile, all within the very superior range.
Most tests have very few people in their norm groups at this level, so scores here are the least precise on the scale and can differ noticeably between tests.
On the Assessivo test, each correct answer is worth about 2.5 points, so 144 falls between two possible results: 143 for 35 correct answers and 145 for 36. How our score is worked out.
So if you scored 144 once, a retest on another day could reasonably land anywhere from 139 to 149. Online tests are less precise still, so treat any online result as a rough estimate.
IQ 144 and mental age in children
Early IQ tests for children worked with a "mental age", the age whose typical performance a child matched. The IQ was that mental age divided by the child's real age, times 100. Turned around, the formula shows what a score of 144 would have meant for children of different ages: working ahead of their years.
| Real age | Mental age at IQ 144 |
|---|---|
| 5 | 7 years 2 months |
| 7 | 10 years 1 month |
| 9 | 13 years |
| 11 | 15 years 10 months |
| 13 | 18 years 9 months |
The same 144 stands for a gap of about 2 years 2 months at age 5 but 5 years 9 months at 13, because the formula scales with age. That is one reason it broke down for teenagers and adults, whose test performance stops rising every year. Today's tests compare you with people of the same age instead, so a mental age is only a way to picture a child's score, never a description of an adult.
What an IQ of 144 means for you
It sits near the top of the very superior band, which runs from 130 to 145.
- You likely handle complex, abstract problems with an ease that very few people share.
- Scores this rare are hard to measure exactly, so a single result is best read as "very high", not as a precise number.
- Research on very able people finds that ability keeps helping even at the top, but interests, effort and opportunity still shape what people achieve.
How far 144 is from other levels
Famous names reported near 144
Very few famous people have published IQ scores, and most numbers online are invented. These are the ones with a documented report or a published estimate. Each is labelled so you can see what kind of figure it is.
Rated by psychologist Catharine Cox in 1926 from records of his early life: about 135 for childhood (to age 17) and 145 for ages 17 to 26. Estimates like these are rough, and he never took an IQ test.
Published estimate, not a test · Cox, Genetic Studies of Genius, Vol. II (1926)
Rated by psychologist Catharine Cox in 1926 from records of his early life: about 115 for childhood (to age 17) and 145 for ages 17 to 26. Estimates like these are rough, and he never took an IQ test.
Published estimate, not a test · Cox, Genetic Studies of Genius, Vol. II (1926)
Rated by psychologist Catharine Cox in 1926 from records of his early life: about 145 for childhood (to age 17) and 145 for ages 17 to 26. Estimates like these are rough, and he never took an IQ test.
Published estimate, not a test · Cox, Genetic Studies of Genius, Vol. II (1926)Portraits are pencil-style sketches by Assessivo, based on: Immanuel Kant after Johann Gottlieb Becker (1768), public domain. Martin Luther after Lucas Cranach the Elder (1528), public domain. Benjamin Franklin after Joseph-Siffred Duplessis (about 1785), public domain.
How 144 compares with nearby scores
Want a score that isn't listed, or the share of people between two scores? Try the IQ calculator.
| IQ | Percentile | Classification | Score this high or higher |
|---|---|---|---|
| 134 | 99th | Very superior | 1 in 85 |
| 139 | 99.5th | Very superior | 1 in 215 |
| 144 | 99.8th | Very superior | 1 in 596 |
| 149 | 99.9th | Very superior | 1 in 1,838 |
| 154 | 99.9th | Very superior | 1 in 6,284 |
Questions about an IQ of 144
What percentile is an IQ of 144?
An IQ of 144 is at about the 99.8th percentile, which means it is higher than about 99.8% of people of the same age.
Is 144 a high IQ?
Yes. 144 is a high IQ by any common definition, in the top one percent of the population.
Can an IQ of 144 get into Mensa?
On most tests, yes. Mensa accepts people who score in the top 2% on an approved, supervised test, which is 130 or above on tests that use a standard deviation of 15. Online test scores are not accepted.
How common is an IQ of 144 or higher?
About 0.17% of people score 144 or higher, roughly 1 in 596. In a stadium of 50,000 people, about 84 would score at this level or above.
Are people with a 144 IQ more sensitive?
Not reliably. Studies of "overexcitability" found gifted groups score somewhat higher on intellectual and imaginative intensity, with smaller or no differences for emotional, sensual and physical intensity. A 2025 review found no difference at all when giftedness was defined by measured intelligence. Some people with a 144 IQ are very sensitive, but many are not.
What mental age is an IQ of 144?
Under the old ratio formula, a 9-year-old with an IQ of 144 would perform like a typical child of about 13 years, roughly 48 months ahead. The idea only works for children: an adult who scores 144 simply did better than most adults of the same age on the test.
Is an IQ of 144 a genius IQ?
In everyday use, 140 or more is often called genius level, but no professional test uses the word. It is an exceptionally high score.
How rare is an IQ above 140?
About 4 people in 1,000 score 140 or higher, roughly 1 in 260. That is on the standard scale with a standard deviation of 15.
Can an online test measure an IQ of 144?
Not reliably. Few online tests have enough very hard questions or the data to tell 140 from 145. A supervised professional test is the only way to confirm a score this high.
For the very top of the scale, see the highest IQ in the world, and for the benchmarks, what is a good IQ score?. Every score range is in the IQ range chart.
A full IQ score of 144 combines several skills. Our guides explain each one: processing speed, fluid vs crystallized intelligence, abstract reasoning, spatial reasoning and verbal reasoning, or try the free pattern recognition test.
Famous names are often linked to scores like 144, with or without a source. We checked the evidence behind Einstein's IQ, Isaac Newton's IQ, Nikola Tesla's IQ, Stephen Hawking's IQ, Bill Gates' IQ, Elon Musk's IQ, Garry Kasparov's IQ and Terence Tao's IQ.
What would you score?
Take the free Assessivo IQ test: 36 questions, 25 minutes, and your estimated IQ score and percentile as soon as you finish.
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