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Last Updated on October 30, 2025
The business school INSEAD is renowned for its high-quality MBA program, which boasts a dynamic and diverse student body. The Financial Times has ranked INSEAD in the top 5 Global MBA programs for many years. So, you may be interested in attending INSEAD to take advantage of everything that this international MBA program offers. If so, you’re likely wondering about the required INSEAD GMAT score.
In this article, I’ll discuss how the INSEAD MBA admissions committee views the GMAT and provide insights you can use to determine what GMAT score makes sense for your INSEAD application. To be clear, this article is about the INSEAD MBA program, as opposed to the INSEAD Executive MBA program, which has its own test requirements involving the EA and the INSEAD Assessment. So, if it’s the INSEAD MBA program you’re interested in, let’s begin by discussing the fact that submitting a GMAT or GRE score is mandatory for applying to INSEAD.
Here are the topics we’ll cover:
- Is the GMAT Mandatory for an INSEAD MBA Application?
- Three Key Factors Underlying How INSEAD Views GMAT Scores
- The Minimum INSEAD MBA GMAT Score
- The GMAT Scores INSEAD Would Prefer to See From Applicants
- INSEAD-Accepted Applicants’ GMAT Score Statistics
- Key Takeaways
Is the GMAT Mandatory for an INSEAD MBA Application?
The first thing you may be wondering about INSEAD with regard to the GMAT is whether the GMAT is a mandatory part of an INSEAD MBA application. The answer is that INSEAD does require that all applicants to the MBA program submit a GMAT or GRE score with their applications. Also good to know is that INSEAD accepts GMAT scores from either the in-person or online GMAT.
KEY FACT:
INSEAD requires that all applicants to the MBA program submit a GMAT or GRE score with their applications.
Let’s now begin to better understand what GMAT score you need for INSEAD by considering some key factors that underlie how INSEAD views GMAT scores.
Three Key Factors Underlying How INSEAD Views GMAT Scores
You want to determine what GMAT score makes sense for your INSEAD application. It helps to understand the following three factors, each of which affects how the INSEAD admissions folks view GMAT scores.
First, the INSEAD MBA admissions committee sees an applicant’s GMAT exam score as a sign of the applicant’s caliber. In other words, like any other business school, all else equal, INSEAD prefers higher GMAT scores to lower ones.
However, that’s not the whole story. Another factor affecting how INSEAD views GMAT scores is that INSEAD’s admissions process is truly holistic. In other words, the admissions committee strongly considers applicant qualities other than GMAT scores. These include such things as an international outlook or the ability to contribute to the INSEAD learning experience. In fact, INSEAD makes a point of encouraging people to apply to the MBA program regardless of their GMAT score. So, clearly, INSEAD admissions is not looking only for candidates with high GMAT scores.
However, the third factor considered by the admissions committee is that the INSEAD MBA program is a one-year program. Of course, a program designed to deliver an MBA degree in one year is intense. To do well in such a program, MBA students have to have strong academic abilities. So, INSEAD admissions can de-emphasize GMAT scores only so much, because they need confirmation that a candidate can thrive in such an intense program. GMAT scores are good indicators of the readiness of candidates to do so.
KEY FACT:
INSEAD’s admissions committee uses GMAT scores to confirm that candidates can handle the school’s intense one-year MBA program.
Let’s now look at some numbers to get a clearer picture of INSEAD GMAT score requirements.
The Minimum INSEAD MBA GMAT Score
INSEAD doesn’t state a minimum required GMAT score. However, applicants must be aware that the intensive nature of the 10-month program requires strong academic skills. Thus, it is not surprising that the average GMAT score for the class of 2025’s admitted students was about 710 (legacy)/665 (current), with a range of about 670-750 (615-715).
It is not unheard of that an applicant is admitted with a GMAT score below 670/615. Recall that INSEAD’s emphasis on a holistic evaluation of candidates includes consideration of work experience, essays, and overall application strength. This is in addition to one’s GMAT score. However, if your GMAT score is below the bottom of the range and you want to attend INSEAD, then you better dust off your GMAT course and work on getting a higher score.
KEY FACT:
For the class of 2025, INSEAD admitted students averaged 710 (legacy)/665 (current) on the GMAT, with a range of about 670-750 (615-715).
Of course, submitting a minimum GMAT score in the application process isn’t a great plan for getting into INSEAD. So, let’s now discuss some GMAT scores INSEAD recommends.
The GMAT Scores INSEAD Would Prefer to See From Applicants
Legacy (10th edition) GMAT Scores
If you are submitting GMAT legacy scores (10th edition, 2012-2024) and you want to be sure that you are checking the box with your GMAT score when applying to INSEAD, you should score in at least the 70th percentile on both the Quant section and the Verbal section of the GMAT. Why? Because INSEAD has posted this at their INSEAD MBA program website:
“INSEAD recommends a score at or above the 70th percentile in both the quantitative and verbal sections. For the Integrated Reasoning section, we recommend achieving a score of 6 or above.”
As we discussed earlier, INSEAD uses GMAT scores to determine candidates’ readiness to handle the intense INSEAD one-year MBA program. The scores that indicate that a candidate is ready to handle the program are at or above the 70th percentile for both Quant and Verbal.
KEY FACT:
INSEAD would prefer to see legacy GMAT scores at or above the 70th percentile for both the Quant and Verbal sections.
The 70th percentile GMAT section scores are 48 on the Quant section and 34 on the Verbal section. By the way, if you get those section scores, your GMAT total score will likely be 680. So, in a sense, 680 is a good GMAT score for INSEAD. However, if you were to score 680 on the GMAT with unbalanced section scores, rather than with the preferred 70th percentile Quant and Verbal scores, then 680 would be decent but not great for applying to INSEAD.
TTP PRO TIP:
To apply to the INSEAD MBA program using legacy (10th ed.) scores, aim to score in at least the 70th percentile on both the Quant section and the Verbal section of the GMAT. This translates to scores of Q48 and V34.
GMAT Focus and Post-2023 GMAT Scores
Here’s what INSEAD says about scores for GMAT exams administered after November 7, 2023, which includes GMAT Focus and beyond.
“INSEAD recommends a 60th percentile on the Verbal component (80), and a 66th percentile on the Quantitative (80) and Data Insights components (77).”
For Focus and later GMAT scores, the 60th percentile GMAT section score is about 80 on the Quant section. The 66th percentile GMAT section scores are 80 on the Verbal section and 77 on the Data Insights section. If you get those section scores, your GMAT total score will likely be 655, which is roughly the 91st percentile. So, in a sense, 655 is a good GMAT score for INSEAD. However, if you were to score 655 on the GMAT with unbalanced section scores, rather than with the recommended section percentiles, then 655 would be decent but not great for applying to INSEAD.
TTP PRO TIP:
To apply to the INSEAD MBA program using GMAT Focus (or later) scores, aim to score in at least the 60th percentile on the Quant section and the 66th percentile on the Verbal and Data Insights sections of the GMAT. This translates to scores of Q80/V80/DI77.
With all that said, it’s one thing for your GMAT score not to put a question mark on your INSEAD application and another to look strong compared to other applicants. So, let’s discuss one more key consideration, how applicants accepted to INSEAD have scored on the GMAT.
INSEAD-Accepted Applicants’ GMAT Score Statistics
INSEAD does not publish many applicant or class statistics. So, stats such as the INSEAD MBA acceptance rate or the middle 80 percent INSEAD GMAT score range for each entering class are not commonly known. However, we were able to piece together enough information to get a pretty clear picture of INSEAD MBA GMAT scores. Here is what we found.
The INSEAD average GMAT score for an entering class has ranged from 700 to 710 (legacy GMAT scores) over the last five years. INSEAD’s MBA class of 2025 had an average GMAT score of 710. So, in deciding on a GMAT score target for your INSEAD application, you can go with the idea that the average GMAT score of an accepted applicant to INSEAD is around 710.
We also know that the 80% GMAT score range for the most recent five years has been about 670-750. This score range indicates that 10% of accepted students scored below 670 and 10% of accepted students scored above 750.
KEY FACT:
INSEAD’s MBA class of 2025 had an average legacy GMAT score of 710.
So, what does all this information mean to us?
Key Takeaways
The bottom line is that the INSEAD MBA program does not have a minimum GMAT score cutoff for applying. The school stresses its holistic approach to evaluating applicants’ packages.
Unless your application is extraordinary in some way, in order to gain acceptance to INSEAD, you need to convince the admissions committee that you can handle the program by scoring in the 70th percentile, or close to it, on both the Quant section and the Verbal section of the GMAT. Such scores translate to a total GMAT score of at least 660 to 680 on the legacy GMAT.
Furthermore, 70th-percentile section scores still put you behind the INSEAD applicant pack in GMAT terms. So, unless your application stands out in some other way, such as uncommon work experience, you’ll want to score higher. So, you could aim to match the class of 2025 average GMAT score of 710.
Also, if you’re from an overrepresented applicant group or have a deficiency in your application, then scoring 720 or higher on the GMAT to make up for those factors is likely the way to go.
If you are submitting scores from the GMAT Focus (or any score past November 2023), you will want to submit a balanced score of 655, reflecting approximate scores of Q80/V80/DI77, which translates to a total score of about 655.
What’s Next?
So, that’s the story on INSEAD MBA GMAT scores. You now better understand what GMAT score you should have for applying to INSEAD. You can learn how to achieve that score; read this post on the best way to study for the GMAT.
