What an IQ of 133 means

An IQ of 133 is higher than about 98.6% of people: roughly 1 in 72 score 133 or more. It is in the very high range, 2.2 standard deviations above the average of 100.

Figure 1. Where an IQ of 133 sits on the bell curve

The amber band is the likely range on a retake of our test, 9 points either side. The curve is the normal distribution with a mean of 100 and a standard deviation of 15.

Is an IQ of 133 good?

Yes. It is higher than about 98.6% of people, inside the top 2% that Mensa uses as its entry line.

What percentile is an IQ of 133?

An IQ of 133 is at the 98th percentile: it is higher than 98.6% of people on a scale with a mean of 100 and a standard deviation of 15.

Tests that use a different standard deviation give the same rarity a different number: about 135 on a 16-point scale such as older Stanford-Binet editions, and about 153 on the 24-point Cattell scale.

How rare is an IQ of 133?

About 1 in 72 people score 133 or higher. In a group of 1,000 people, about 14 would be expected to score that high or higher.

How much could a retake change it?

No test gives the same score twice. The likely range is where about 90 in 100 retakes would land, and its width depends on how reliable the test is.1

Table 1. The likely range for a score of 133
TestMargin of errorLikely range
Our test (reliability 0.87)±9124 to 142
A test with reliability 0.90±8125 to 141
A test with reliability 0.95±6127 to 139

The margin is 1.645 standard errors of measurement, which covers about 90% of retakes.

What an IQ of 133 does not tell you

A score describes how someone did on one set of reasoning tasks on one day. It does not measure what a person knows, how hard they work or what they will achieve.

An online test is for interest. For a score that counts for school, work or health, a psychologist can give a full assessment in person.

Nearby scores

Sources

  1. American Educational Research Association, American Psychological Association and National Council on Measurement in Education (2014). Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing, chapter 2: Reliability/Precision and Errors of Measurement. www.testingstandards.net/open-access-files.html

First published 13 November 2026.