Guinness World Records receive over 50,000 record applications a year (that's almost 1,000 applications every week!).

Due to the consistently high volume of applications we receive, the waiting times for a response to a Self-service application can take up to 20 weeks. Once we receive the evidence for your record attempt, it can take up to 20 weeks for us to review your documentation and let you know if your record attempt has been a success. (These times can vary depending on the number of applications we have so make sure to keep checking!)

If you have received notice that your application has been accepted you can then use your online account, to send us a message to enquire about your application progress. To access your online account, log in and select the relevant application and scroll to the bottom of the page to the correspondence box. Your message will be delivered directly to the Records Manager dealing with your application. (This facility is only available once your application has been accepted and your guidelines have been released to you and it can take up to 2 weeks to receive a response.)

You can also check on the status of your application, update your profile details and application information, by logging into your account.

In the unlikely event you have not received a response from us within 20 weeks of submitting your application, please contact us with your application ID, registered email address and proposed record title. Our Customer Service team will be able to look into this for you.

We currently hold more than 60,000 records online, so if you wish to find out if a record exists, please feel free to explore our website!

You can locate a record by using the search and entering keyword(s).

To search for specific keywords, please use quotation marks (“xxxx”), as this will show all results containing your chosen keywords.

If you still can’t find what you’re looking for, it may be that the record you are interested in has not been updated on our website yet, is not a record that we currently monitor or currently does not exist.

While Guinness World Records no longer monitors who tops the overall leader board of ‘most records broken’ (as all titles we monitor are very different and require an array of skills), some of our most prolific record breakers of all time include Silvio Sabba (Italy) Ashrita Furman (USA) and David Rush (USA).

For new record ideas please note that Guinness World Records only recognises WORLD records. We do not verify national / country specific achievements.

All Guinness World Records record titles must fulfill key criteria including:

1. Measurable - Is it the fastest / longest / heaviest / most?
2. Breakable - Can the record be broken or repeated by someone else? All our record titles must be open to being challenged.
3. Standardisable - Can the record title be done universally? For example, it cannot be related to something restricted to a region.
4. Verifiable - Can the claim be proven? For example, a claim such as ‘the man who never drank water’, can never be verified unless the man spent his whole life from birth under surveillance by a witness.
5. One Variable – We can verify the largest painting but would not consider the largest painting by the most people.
6. Universal - The proposal must be something, or about something that is known to the majority of the world. It cannot be too specific / regional.
7. Substantially different from a current record - If your record suggestion is similar to something we already have, we will ask you to break the current record rather than approving a variation of the same title.

Guinness World Records has Records Management Teams who undertake research and verification checks to confirm whether a new record title has been achieved.

When you submit an application for a new record title, these teams carefully assess it to confirm whether or not your proposal can be accepted. When you submit your evidence for a new or existing title, the Records Management Teams will run comprehensive checks on this evidence to confirm whether it is sufficient to demonstrate that you have achieved the record title in question.

If your proposal for a new title is accepted, or if you are applying for an existing title, you will receive your guidelines to attempt the record.  It is important that you read these and the evidence checklist pack carefully, and document all requested evidence. This is so our team can assess all evidence provided and verify whether your attempt has been successful.

It is also important that you ask any questions well in advance of any record attempt. This is to ensure we have time to respond, as it can take up to 2 weeks for us to get back to you. If your application has been accepted, you will be able to send all correspondence via your online account directly to your records manager.

Visit our How to collect and submit evidence to get an idea of the evidence you need to provide as part of your record attempt.

For any record titles associated with large amounts of food, our Record Guidelines stipulate that it must either be consumed or distributed for consumption after it has been measured. As with all record titles, the Record Guidelines must be adhered to in order to be considered a successful Guinness World Records title.

Please refer to our record policies page.