The beep test has 21 levels and a theoretical maximum of 247 shuttles. No one has ever been officially verified as completing all of them. That fact alone tells you something about how the test is designed.
What the Maximum Actually Requires
Level 21 requires running at 18.5 km/h — close to the pace of a 3 minute 14 second kilometre, sustained for 16 consecutive 20 metre shuttles with a turn at each end. Reaching the maximum would mean sustaining near-sprint pace, with tight turns, for nearly 25 minutes of continuous running from the start of the test.
For context, an elite 5000 metre runner running at world record pace averages roughly 14.4 km/h over their event. The final level of the beep test is faster than that, with the added metabolic cost of repeated turns and the accumulated fatigue of 20 preceding levels.
The test is designed to be impossible to complete. It is a maximal test — it is supposed to push everyone to their limit before the end.
The Highest Verified Scores
Official records for the beep test are not maintained by a single governing body in the way that athletics world records are, which makes definitive claims about the world record difficult to verify.
The highest scores that have been reliably reported from elite athletes and testing environments are typically in the range of level 17 to 19. Elite middle distance runners, cross country skiers and professional footballers with exceptional aerobic capacity have been reported to reach these levels under properly administered conditions.
Scores above level 17 represent genuinely extraordinary aerobic fitness. The VO2 max estimates that correspond to these levels are in the range of 70 to 80 ml/kg/min, which is the territory of elite endurance athletes.
Claims of Level 21
There are regular claims on social media and forums of people completing level 21 or beyond. Almost none of these are verifiable. The most common issues are unmeasured distances (running fewer than 20 metres per shuttle), apps with incorrect timing, or simply misremembering the score.
At the correct distance with accurate timing, reaching level 21 would require a VO2 max estimate approaching 88 ml/kg/min. The highest reliably measured VO2 max ever recorded in a laboratory setting is around 97 ml/kg/min. Reaching the end of the beep test would theoretically be possible for someone at that extreme end of human aerobic capacity, but it has not been done under properly standardised conditions.
The Group Record
The Guinness World Record for the largest group beep test is held by the Army Foundation College in Harrogate, North Yorkshire, where 941 people completed the test simultaneously. That record stands as of 2026.
What Is a Genuinely Elite Score?
For practical purposes, reaching level 14 or above puts you in extraordinary company. Less than 1% of the general population achieves this under properly administered conditions. Level 12 is excellent for most age groups. Level 10 is a strong result that reflects genuinely good aerobic fitness.
The value of the beep test is not in chasing a maximum that does not exist in practice. It is in having a repeatable, comparable measure of your own aerobic fitness that you can track over time and improve with the right training.