Quick answer
Clutch Global is the wider award: it goes to the top 15 companies in each category's Leaders Matrix, picked by organic Clutch Rank, and Clutch now runs it quarterly. Clutch Champions is a smaller group inside it. To be a Champion, a company has to be a Clutch Global winner and have at least 3 new verified reviews in the 12 months before the award cycle. Champions is given once a year, with the Fall round. Clutch also runs the Clutch 1000 (top 1,000 companies by Ability to Deliver score), the Clutch 100 (fastest growing by revenue, by application) and monthly Leader Awards. Clutch says sponsorship plays no part in any of them. I checked Clutch's own methodology page and press releases on 15 October 2026.
The five Clutch awards, side by side
I'm a B2B outbound consultant with 2000+ meetings booked for B2B clients, and almost every agency site I open carries a Clutch badge in the footer. Clutch's research methodology page lists five award programs, and here is how each one is won. This post explains the awards, not who holds them.
| Award | How often | Who qualifies | Application? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Clutch Global | Quarterly: Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter | Top 15 companies in a category's Leaders Matrix, by organic Clutch Rank | No |
| Clutch Champions | Once a year, in Fall | Clutch Global winners with 3+ new verified reviews in the 12 months before the cycle | No |
| Clutch 1000 | Once a year | Top 1,000 companies by Ability to Deliver score; ties go to the company with more reviews | No |
| Clutch 100 | Once a year, in Spring | 100 fastest-growing companies by revenue growth, with a revenue floor | Yes, with financial data |
| Leader Awards | Monthly | Top performers in a service, location or certification category | No |
Clutch's own summary: awards sit downstream of rank, and rank sits downstream of verified evidence. Most of these badges come back to one question: how many recent, verified, positive reviews does the company have in that category?
Champions vs Global: the one extra test
Every Clutch Champion is a Clutch Global winner. Not every Global winner is a Champion. The only extra test is fresh reviews: at least 3 new verified reviews in the twelve-month period before the award cycle. Clutch calls Champions "the highest achievement" a company can get on the platform.
In the last Champions round, announced on 13 November 2025, the window ran from 5 November 2024 to 3 November 2025, per Clutch's Fall 2025 press release. The Fall 2026 round had not been announced when I checked.
So what does a Champion badge add for you as a buyer? It tells you the agency kept collecting verified reviews over the past year, on top of ranking in the top 15 of its category. It doesn't measure anything about the work that Global doesn't already measure. Both come from the same Clutch Rank.
Keep the size of the agency in mind. Three reviews in a year is easy for a firm with dozens of clients and hard for a small shop that runs a handful of long projects. A missing Champion badge on a small agency can simply mean it asked few clients for a review that year.
How Clutch Global winners are picked
Clutch Global goes to the top 15 companies in each Leaders Matrix, the chart Clutch draws for a category such as a service or a service in a city. Clutch picks them by organic Clutch Rank, which rests on a 40-point Ability to Deliver score:
| Part of the score | Points | What goes in |
|---|---|---|
| Reviews | 20 | Average rating, recency, verification status and the project budget behind each review |
| Clients and experience | 10 | The type and quality of clients, plus portfolio items and case studies |
| Market presence | 10 | Web presence, domain authority, industry recognition, social media and thought leadership |
Three details from the same page matter when you read a Global badge:
- Only verified reviews count. Reviews published without Clutch's Verified label don't feed the score at all.
- Recent reviews count most. Reviews from the last two years carry the most weight.
- Half the score isn't reviews. Clients and experience is a quarter. Market presence is the other quarter, and it rewards a company that markets itself well online. That's a fair sign of an established firm, not proof it delivers for clients like you.
Clutch Global is announced by category group, not all at once. In 2026 so far, the Spring round covered marketing and advertising (20 May 2026, nearly 400 agencies across 52 categories) and the Summer round covered IT and development (30 July 2026, over 400 agencies across 54 categories). So check which category the badge names. A Global award for web design says nothing about an agency's lead generation work.
The Champions rules changed every year
If you compare Champion badges from different years, you're comparing different tests. Here is what Clutch itself said each time:
| Round | What Champions required | Schedule Clutch gave |
|---|---|---|
| Fall 2023 (launch) | "Top 10% of Clutch Global winners" with new verified reviews from the past six months | Twice a year, next in Spring 2024 |
| Fall 2024 | At least 3 recent verified reviews from 20 May to 5 November 2024 | Twice a year, next in Spring 2025 |
| Fall 2025 | At least 3 recent verified reviews from 5 November 2024 to 3 November 2025, and Global narrowed to the top 15 per Leaders Matrix | Global twice a year, next in Spring 2026 |
| Methodology page, October 2026 | Global winner plus 3+ new verified reviews in the 12 months before the cycle | Champions once a year in Fall, Global quarterly |
Sources: Clutch's Fall 2023 release, Fall 2024 release and Fall 2025 release, linked above.
That's where the "top 10% of Global winners" line comes from. You'll still see it on many agency sites, but it's Clutch's wording from the 2023 launch. Clutch's current methodology page gives no percentage, only the three-review test. The Fall 2025 release also said Global was handed out twice a year, while the methodology page now says quarterly. Read the season and the year on the badge before you read anything else.
Clutch 1000, Clutch 100 and Leader Awards
Clutch 1000
The top 1,000 companies on Clutch by Ability to Deliver score: the recency, number and quality of verified reviews, the types of clients, the services and experience behind them and brand reputation. Ties are broken by the total number of reviews on the profile. The 2025 list came out on 11 December 2025 and picked 1,000 companies out of 350,000 on the platform. It's the eighth year Clutch has run it.
Clutch 100
A growth award, not a quality one. Companies apply and submit financial data, and Clutch ranks them by revenue growth. For the 2026 list, that meant growth from 2024 to 2025 and at least $500,000 in 2024 revenue. Per the methodology page, reviews don't affect it. The 2026 Clutch 100 was announced on 25 March 2026. It tells you a company is growing fast. It doesn't tell you how its clients rate the work.
Leader Awards
Monthly awards for top companies in a specific service, location or certification category, such as women-owned firms in a service line. Any company with a profile and client reviews is eligible, and Clutch's help page on earning a Leader Award says the methodology weighs the number, quality and recency of reviews the most. These are the narrowest awards, so the category name matters most here.
Badges on a Clutch profile that aren't awards
Three other badges sit next to the awards and are easy to mix up with them:
| Badge | What it checks | How long it lasts |
|---|---|---|
| Top Company badge | A place in the top 15 of a directory page sorted by Clutch Rank | Live: it changes with the rank |
| Clutch Certified | At least 10% of the profile allocated to a service, plus 3+ verified reviews rated 4.0 or higher from the past 24 months tagged to that service | Rolling 24 months, lapses if reviews age out |
| Verified or Premier Verified | The business is registered, passes a credit check (or a review-based alternative) and averages above 3.0 stars; Premier also needs 3+ verified reviews with 1+ in the past year | Starts with buying Clutch Verified or an advertising product |
For a buyer, Clutch Certified is the most useful of the three, because reviewers, not the agency, tag which service a review is about. The Top Company rule is from Clutch's help page on Top Company badges; the other two are on the methodology page.
Can an agency pay for a Clutch award?
Clutch says no. Its methodology page says awards are free and drawn from organic data, and that sponsorship doesn't affect selection for Global, Champions, 100 or 1000.
Money does change two things you see. Clutch's directories sort by default as sponsored companies first, then Premier Verified, then Verified, then everyone else by Clutch Rank. And the Verified badge starts with a purchase. Neither is an award, but both affect which agencies you notice first.
Re-sort the directory. Before you compare agencies on Clutch, switch the sort to Clutch Rank. Clutch says sponsorship drops out of the order when you do, so you see the same ranking the awards come from.
One more thing that money doesn't buy but habit does: every award leans on recent verified reviews, so agencies that ask every client for a review do better than equally good agencies that don't. How Clutch checks those reviews is covered in Clutch reviews vs an agency's own comparison page.
How to read a Clutch award before you shortlist
- Read the full badge. Award name, season and year. A 2023 Champion and a 2025 Champion passed different tests.
- Check the category. Global and Leader awards are per category. Make sure it's the service you're buying.
- Open the Leaders Matrix for that category. See where the agency sits today and which agencies sit next to it.
- Look for Clutch Certified in your service. It's the badge most tied to the work you'd buy.
- Read the verified reviews from the last 12 to 24 months. Filter to your service and your company size if you can.
- Ask for a reference behind one of those reviews. The questions that tell you about results are in my 12-point agency checklist.
A badge is a reason to look closer, not a reason to sign. If the same agency also sells through Upwork or shows G2 badges, here is what Upwork's agency badges measure and what G2 badges mean.
Key takeaways
- Clutch Global goes to the top 15 companies in each category's Leaders Matrix, by organic Clutch Rank, and now runs quarterly.
- A Clutch Champion is a Global winner with at least 3 new verified reviews in the 12 months before the cycle. It's given once a year, in Fall.
- The "top 10% of Global winners" line is Clutch's 2023 wording. The rules changed in 2024 and 2025, so read the year on the badge.
- Clutch 1000 ranks by Ability to Deliver score. Clutch 100 ranks by revenue growth and ignores reviews. Leader Awards are monthly and narrow.
- Clutch says awards can't be bought, but sponsored listings still show first by default. Sort by Clutch Rank before you compare.
FAQ
What is the difference between Clutch Champions and Clutch Global?
Clutch Global goes to the top 15 companies in a category's Leaders Matrix. Clutch Champions is the subset of Global winners that also got at least 3 new verified reviews in the 12 months before the award cycle.
How do you become a Clutch Champion?
You have to win a Clutch Global award in the Fall cycle and have at least 3 new verified reviews in the twelve months before it. There's no application: Clutch selects Champions from its own data.
Is a Clutch Champion in the top 10% of Global winners?
That was Clutch's description when it launched Champions in 2023. Its current methodology page gives no percentage and defines Champions only by the three-review test on top of a Global award.
What is the Clutch 1000?
An annual list of the 1,000 companies on Clutch with the highest Ability to Deliver scores, built from verified reviews, client types, services and brand reputation. The 2025 list picked 1,000 out of 350,000 companies.
Can you pay for a Clutch award?
Clutch says no: awards are free and sponsorship doesn't affect selection. Paid placement does change the default order of Clutch's directories, so sort by Clutch Rank when you compare agencies.