BJJ has five main adult belt ranks: white, blue, purple, brown, and black. Each belt has up to four stripes awarded for continued progress before the next belt. Coral and red belts exist above black for exceptional long-term contributions to the art.
Promotions are at the coach's discretion; there is no standardised test. The criteria include mat time, technical level, competition results, conduct, and teaching ability, weighted differently by each instructor and academy. IBJJF sets minimum age and time requirements for purple, brown, and black, but these are floors, not ceilings.
The gap between belts is large compared to other martial arts. A typical blue belt takes 1–3 years from white; black belt commonly takes 10 years or more. This is by design: BJJ belts represent real, tested ability rather than curriculum completion.