McLaughlin's solo on "Miles Beyond" from his album "Live at Ronnie Scott's" won the 2018 Grammy Award for the Best Improvised Jazz Solo. He has been awarded multiple "Guitarist of the Year" and "Best Jazz Guitarist" awards from magazines such as "DownBeat" and "Guitar Player" based on reader polls. In 2003, he was ranked 49th in "Rolling Stone" magazine's list of the "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time". In 2009, "DownBeat" included McLaughlin in its unranked list of "75 Great Guitarists", in the "Modern Jazz Maestros" category. In 2012, "Guitar World" magazine ranked him 63rd on its top 100 list. In 2010, Jeff Beck called McLaughlin "the best guitarist alive," and Pat Metheny has also described him as the world's greatest guitarist. In 2017, McLaughlin was awarded an honorary doctorate of music from Berklee College of Music.