BJJ belt order: every color, for adults and kids, and past black

The adult jiu-jitsu belt order is white, blue, purple, brown, black. After black come three belts most people never see on a mat: red-and-black (the seventh degree), red-and-white (the eighth), and red (the ninth and tenth). Children aged four to fifteen use a separate ladder: white, then twelve belts in four color groups, grey, yellow, orange and green, each in a white-bar, solid and black-bar version. This page is the reference chart. What each belt means is a different question, answered in the belt system, explained without mysticism.

Every age and time below comes from the International Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Federation's General System of Graduation, the revised edition published in June 2026. The federation writes rules for what it will recognise; your professor decides when you are promoted. Keep both halves in mind.

Adults: the order, the minimum ages, the minimum times

The IBJJF's adult ladder applies from age sixteen. The minimum time is how long the federation requires an athlete to hold a belt before the next one is recognised; almost everyone takes longer.

Order	Belt	Minimum age	Minimum time before the next belt
1	White	any age	none
2	Blue	16	2 years
3	Purple	16	1 year and a half
4	Brown	18	1 year
5	Black	19, or 18 for an adult world champion at brown	31 years, fixed, before red-and-black
6	Red-and-black	49	7 years, fixed
7	Red-and-white	56	10 years, fixed
8	Red	66	no further belt

Two details the table cannot hold. First, the blue and purple minimums have exceptions for people who came up through the kids' belts: a former grey, yellow or orange belt needs one year at blue instead of two, a former green belt or a juvenile blue belt needs no minimum at all, and the same logic shortens purple for former juvenile belts. Second, an adult world champion at blue, purple or brown may be promoted with no minimum time at that belt. The exceptions are the federation's, not a gym's habit.

Stripes and degrees

White, blue, purple and brown are each divided into four degrees, shown as strips of tape on the belt's black bar; on the mat everyone calls them stripes. Up to brown, whether a gym uses them is the professor's choice, and the first stripe is the one most beginners ask about. The black belt carries six degrees on its red bar, and here the timings are fixed rather than suggested: three years each for the first, second and third degree, five years each for the fourth, fifth and sixth. The seventh degree is the red-and-black belt, requested after seven more years; the eighth, red-and-white, after another seven; the ninth, red, after ten more. The tenth degree was given only to the pioneers the federation names: Carlos, Oswaldo, George, Gastão and Hélio Gracie.

Kids: white, then twelve belts in four groups

Children's belts run from age four to fifteen and have no minimum time at any belt. After white, each color group has three belts: a white-bar version, the solid color, then a black-bar version.

Group	Belts, in order	Ages
White	white	any
Grey	grey-and-white, grey, grey-and-black	4 to 15
Yellow	yellow-and-white, yellow, yellow-and-black	7 to 15
Orange	orange-and-white, orange, orange-and-black	10 to 15
Green	green-and-white, green, green-and-black	13 to 15

At sixteen a child moves onto the adult ladder, and the rule for where they land is written down: a white belt may stay white; a grey, yellow or orange belt becomes a blue belt; a green belt becomes blue or purple, at the professor's decision.

How to read a belt on the mat

An adult belt from white to brown is 3.5 to 4.5 centimetres wide with a black bar about ten centimetres long near one end, and the stripes sit on that bar. A black belt carries a red bar bounded by two white ones, with its degrees marked in between. A red-and-black or red-and-white belt alternates its two colors in twenty-centimetre bands. Kids' belts are narrower, 2.5 to 3.5 centimetres, and the bar may be white, black, or the group's own color depending on the version. None of this changes how you tie it.

What the minimums are, and what they are not

The federation counts time from the day a belt is registered with it, and it says plainly that the pace from white to black is at the professor's discretion. So the minimums answer one narrow question, the earliest a promotion can be recognised, and not the one beginners actually ask, which is how long it takes. Nobody honest answers that with a number, for reasons the belt-system post goes into. Federations other than the IBJJF, and gyms that do not register with any federation, may run different systems; this chart describes the IBJJF's.

Questions readers ask

What are the BJJ belts in order?

For adults: white, blue, purple, brown, black, then red-and-black, red-and-white and red. For children aged four to fifteen: white, then the grey, yellow, orange and green groups, each with a white-bar, solid and black-bar belt, thirteen belts in all.

How long do you have to hold each belt?

Under the IBJJF: no minimum at white, two years at blue, a year and a half at purple, one year at brown, with exceptions for former kids' belts and adult world champions. From black the periods are fixed: thirty-one years to red-and-black, seven to red-and-white, ten to red. These are the federation's floors, not typical times.

What comes after black belt?

Degrees on the black belt, six of them, then the red-and-black belt at the seventh degree (minimum age 49), red-and-white at the eighth (56) and red at the ninth (66). The tenth degree belongs to the five pioneers only.

Do stripes count as belts?

No. Stripes are the degrees within a belt, up to four on white through brown. They mark progress inside a color; the next belt is a separate promotion.

What is the minimum age for a black belt?

Nineteen under the IBJJF, or eighteen for an athlete who won the adult world championship at brown belt, a rule added in the June 2026 edition.