Hazel Ryan
What are G2 badges?
A G2 badge is an award G2 generates automatically for products recognized in its market reports. The main ones mark a product's quadrant on a Grid, such as Leader or High Performer. Others mark growth, top index scores, company segments, regions and annual rankings. Reviews from real users drive every one of them.
G2's badges help page says a Grid Report badge requires a product to rank in the Leader or High Performer quadrant. It also lists Users Love Us as an additional reward, which a product earns from its review count and rating instead of a report placement. Your profile badge updates automatically to one from the most recent reporting season.
For a B2B SaaS team, a badge is quick proof that G2's users rate the product well, on a website or in a sales deck. Because badges follow review volume and recency, some teams run a planned campaign to increase G2 reviews before a report cutoff, though no campaign can promise a badge. If your buyers also compare products on Capterra or Trustpilot, all our review services cover those sites too.
The G2 Leader badge and G2 High Performer badge explained
The G2 Leader badge and the G2 High Performer badge both come from the Grid, the chart G2 draws for each category with customer satisfaction on one axis and market presence on the other. G2's guide to understanding badges describes four quadrants, and only two of them earn a badge.
| Grid quadrant | Satisfaction | Market presence | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|
| Leader | High | High | Leader |
| High Performer | High | Lower | High Performer |
| Contender | Lower | High | None |
| Niche | Lower | Lower | None |
The Leader badge is the hardest to win, because it needs both happy users and a large footprint in the market. In G2's Fall 2026 Reports announcement, dated 25 August 2026, G2 said just 2% of the software products and services providers on G2 received a Leader badge. High Performer is the badge many growing SaaS products earn first, since it rewards satisfaction even when market presence is still small.
Both badges depend on how your product sits against the others in its category. Our guide to the g2 grid explains how the two scores place a product on the chart and how new reviews move it.
Other badges G2 awards each season
Leader and High Performer are the badges most buyers recognize, but G2 awards several more. Each answers a narrower question, such as how fast a product is growing or how easy it is to set up.
Momentum Leader
G2 says the Momentum Leader badge goes to products in the top 25% of their category for growth in web traffic, social presence and employee count. The Momentum Grid behind it favors products with large year-over-year changes, and a product can first appear one year after its first Grid report.
Index badges
G2 also publishes index reports that rank products on one theme. Its badge guide names four index badges, and a product must rank first in its category for that index to earn one:
- Best Results: the highest overall results score, covering ROI and meeting requirements.
- Best Usability: the highest scores for ease of use and administration.
- Most Implementable: the highest scores for ease of setup and implementation.
- Best Relationship: the highest scores for ease of doing business with the vendor and quality of support.
Segment and regional badges
Segment badges, such as Small Business Leader, Mid-Market Leader and Enterprise Leader, come from Grids built from reviewers at companies of that size, so they suit products that sell mostly to one kind of customer. Regional badges, such as Leader Europe or Leader Asia Pacific, come from the regional Grids G2 publishes for those areas.
Users Love Us and Best Software awards
Users Love Us does not depend on a report placement. G2 awards it once a product has collected 20 reviews with an average rating of 4.0 stars or higher. The Best Software awards are yearly lists, released in February and built from reviews submitted in the previous calendar year.
How G2 scores products for a badge
Every Grid badge comes from two scores. G2's research scoring methodologies describe a Satisfaction score built mainly from review answers and a Market Presence score built from review volume, company size and web presence data. The page was last updated on 26 August 2026.
What feeds the Satisfaction score
G2 gives the most weight to user-focused review questions, such as ease of use, meets requirements and quality of support. Review volume and review recency also rank as high-importance factors, with review quality at medium.
Why recent reviews count for more
G2 applies a decay to every review from the day it is submitted. A review loses weight gradually over its first 90 days, keeps a stronger weight for the first 18 months and then decays faster. After about three years it sits at roughly 3% of its original weight, and an updated review starts the decay again.
This is why a burst of reviews two years ago does little for this quarter's report. A team that adds reviews every month keeps both scores current, which is the real link between reviews and badges.
Review counts G2 needs first
A product cannot earn a Grid badge until it qualifies for the Grid. These are the thresholds as G2 states them, checked on 25 October 2026:
| Requirement | G2's threshold |
|---|---|
| Product on a Grid Report | At least 10 reviews in the corresponding category |
| Category gets a Grid Report | At least six products with 10+ reviews, and 150+ reviews overall |
| Index reports | Product needs at least 10 reviews; category also needs five or more answers to the report's questions |
| Users Love Us | 20 reviews with an average rating of 4.0 stars or higher |
| Best Software awards | At least 10 reviews in the past year |
Want reviews in before the next report?
See how our review campaigns work, from the written plan to the last review, all inside G2's rules.
When G2 awards badges each quarter
G2 calculates its report badges four times a year, in Winter, Spring, Summer and Fall. Each season's reports use reviews collected up to a cutoff date, so a review that arrives after the cutoff counts toward the next season. G2's Fall 2026 announcement said the Winter Reports release on 1 December.
The timing matters for planning. If you want a badge for a product launch or a conference, the reviews need to be live before the cutoff for that season. Our guide to g2 seasonal reports covers the dates, the cutoffs and how to plan for them.
Badges also age. Your profile badge switches to the latest season automatically, and G2 recommends that badges earned from Summer 2025 onward show the current quarter and year.
How to get G2 badges in the next report
There is no form to apply for a badge, so earning one comes down to the reviews and data G2 scores. G2 also compares you with every other product in the category, so the same scores can earn a badge one season and none the next.
- Check your category. Make sure your product is listed in the category where your buyers look, because the 10-review minimum applies per category.
- Reach the minimums first. Get to 10 reviews in that category for the Grid, and 20 reviews at 4.0 stars or higher for Users Love Us.
- Ask every customer at fixed points. Send the same request to all customers at points everyone reaches, such as day 30, day 90 and the account anniversary.
- Keep reviews coming every month. Recency weighs heavily, so a steady pace through the quarter beats one push in the final week.
- Ask for detail. Reviews that answer the usability, support and results questions feed the scores behind index badges too.
Every review still has to pass G2's checks before it counts. Our guide to g2 review guidelines explains how G2 checks and publishes reviews, and why reviews that break its rules can be rejected or removed.
How to display a G2 badge and the rules for using it
Once you earn a badge, the Badges tab in my.G2's Content Studio shows the latest season's badges, lets you download them as SVG files and gives you embed code for websites, landing pages and email signatures. G2 also offers an option to show your star rating in search results once badges are embedded, though it says the stars are not guaranteed for every search.
Access depends on your plan. G2's badge refresh announcement explains that from the Summer 2025 reports, only upgraded profiles can publicly promote quarterly report badges and Best Software badges. Free profiles still earn placements, can mention them in text with a link to the category page, and can use Users Love Us.
G2's community guidelines for businesses add a few rules for anyone using badges:
- Republishing a G2 badge needs a license, except for Users Love Us.
- Never alter or modify a badge.
- Use the full badge name, including the segment or region where one applies.
- Link back to the category page when you show a badge, a real-time ranking or Users Love Us.
G2 can restrict new reviews, revoke my.G2 access or add banners to a profile when these guidelines are broken. Keep the badge files exactly as G2 supplies them.
G2 review service
Get more G2 reviews with RelikReview
RelikReview runs G2 campaigns with verified users who write in their own words, so you can increase G2 reviews ahead of a report cutoff. You get the plan, timing and price in writing first.
- Verified users, own wordsReviewers are never paid and choose their own rating.
- Paced for recencyReviews arrive steadily across the quarter.
- No badge promisesG2 alone decides every placement.
G2 badges follow steady reviews
G2 badges reward products that users rate well and that keep earning reviews quarter after quarter. Reach the review minimums in the right category, ask every customer at the same fixed points and keep reviews arriving through each season so recency works in your favor.
Then display what you earn within G2's rules, with the full badge name and a link to the category page. If you would rather have a team handle the review side, the RelikReview team can help you buy reviews online from verified users within G2's rules.
FAQs about earning a G2 badge
How many reviews do you need for a G2 badge?
A product needs at least 10 reviews in a category to appear on that category's G2 Grid, which is the first step toward a Leader or High Performer badge. The category itself needs six products with 10 or more reviews and 150 or more reviews in total. The Users Love Us badge needs 20 reviews averaging 4.0 stars.
Is every G2 badge free to use?
No, only the Users Love Us badge is free to share for every profile. Since the Summer 2025 reports, quarterly report badges and Best Software badges can be publicly promoted only by upgraded profiles. Free profiles still earn placements and can mention them in text with a link to the category page.
Can you buy a G2 badge?
No, a G2 badge cannot be bought. G2 awards badges from its own scoring of reviews and market presence data, and an upgraded profile only changes which earned badges you can download and share. The honest route is to collect more genuine reviews from users who have worked with the product.
What is the G2 Users Love Us badge?
The Users Love Us badge is a G2 award for products with 20 reviews and an average rating of 4.0 stars or higher. It does not depend on a quadrant or index placement in a report. Free and paid profiles can both share it, with a link back to the category page.
Do old reviews still count toward a G2 badge?
Yes, old reviews still count, but they carry less weight over time. G2 keeps a stronger weight for about the first 18 months, then decay speeds up, and after about three years a review sits at roughly 3% of its original weight. Updating a review resets the decay.
