An A2 is not an A2. Fuji, Kingz and Gold BJJ each put a different body in the same label, and the gap is close to a full size. Enter your height and weight once and this gives you your size in all three from their own published charts, plus how much the gi will shrink with the way you actually wash it.
BJJ gi size calculator
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Sizes come from each brand’s own published chart. Cuts change between models and production runs, so check the chart on the product page before you order.
Last updated: August 2026
Short answer: a 5 foot 9, 180 lb grappler is an A3 in Fuji, an A2 in Kingz and an A2 in Gold BJJ. Same body, different label. Weight decides the size and height decides whether you need a Long or Husky variant, so always size from the chart of the brand you are actually buying.
- Fuji runs roughly one size smaller than the industry baseline. Their A2 covers 140 to 170 lb, where Kingz A2 covers 170 to 190 lb.
- Weight comes first. Height only fine-tunes sleeve and pant length, which is what the L and H variants exist for.
- Most modern gis are partially pre-shrunk and lose 1 to 5 percent depending on heat. Fully pre-shrunk models lose under 2 percent.
- Cold wash and hang dry keeps a gi at the size you ordered. Hot wash and a hot dryer is what takes it a full size down.
- You can shrink a gi that is slightly big. You cannot unshrink one that is too small, so size up when you are genuinely between sizes.
- For IBJJF competition, sleeves must sit within 2 cm of the wrist and pants within 2 cm of the ankle bone. That tolerance dropped from 5 cm after the 2024 Worlds and it fails more gis than people expect.
Why is an A2 different in every brand?
Because there is no standards body for gi sizing. The A0 to A6 scale is a convention, not a specification, and every manufacturer picks its own height and weight bands for each label. Nobody is being dishonest about it. They publish their charts. It is just that almost nobody reads them, because the letter-number code feels like it should mean something universal.
Here is the same person, 5 foot 9 and 180 lb, run through three official charts:
| Brand | Size for 5 foot 9, 180 lb | What that brand’s A2 actually covers |
|---|---|---|
| Fuji | A3 | 5 foot 5 to 5 foot 9, 140 to 170 lb |
| Kingz (standard models) | A2 | 5 foot 7 to 5 foot 10, 170 to 190 lb |
| Gold BJJ | A2 | 5 foot 8 to 6 foot, 150 to 190 lb |
Fuji is the outlier and it catches people constantly. Someone who has worn an A2 in Kingz for three years orders an A2 Fuji, and it arrives fitting like a rash guard. The Fuji chart is not wrong. It is just calibrated about a size below where most of the market sits.
Should I size by height or by weight?
Weight, then height. Kingz states this outright in their size guide and it is the right rule: weight determines how the jacket wraps across your torso, which is the part that matters. Too much room and you are handing an opponent extra material to grip. Too little and the lapels barely overlap, which makes the collar harder to control and easier to strip.
Height only decides length. Sleeves should end near the wrist bone with your arm out straight, and pants should sit just above the ankle. When your weight says A2 but you are 6 foot 2, you do not want an A3, because an A3 adds width everywhere as well as length. You want an A2L: same torso, longer limbs.
Fuji handles the conflict differently and tells you to take the larger of the two sizes when height and weight disagree. That is reasonable for them, because they also sell L and H variants across most of the range.
What do the L and H variants actually mean?
They are the answer to the two most common fit complaints, and a lot of people do not know they exist.
- L, for Long. Same torso width as the base size, with longer sleeves and pant legs. Built for tall, lean frames. An A2L fits someone 6 foot 1 and 180 lb where a standard A2 leaves the sleeves short and an A3 swims on them.
- H, for Husky. Adds width through the chest, shoulders and lapel without the extra length. An A2H fits someone 5 foot 8 and 230 lb, where an A4 would have them stepping on the pant hems.
If you are broad and have spent years buying a size up so the jacket closes, and then hemming the pants, an H variant is very likely what you have needed the whole time. Gold BJJ offers H cuts from A0H through A3H, Fuji has A2H and A3H, and Kingz has A2H and A3H.
How much do BJJ gis shrink?
Less than the folklore says, if you treat them properly, and quite a lot if you do not. The published figures are more useful than the gym-floor rumours:
| Fabric state | Expected shrink | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Fully pre-shrunk | 1 to 2 percent | Kingz, for the Ultralight and Balistico models |
| Partially pre-shrunk | 3 to 5 percent with heat exposure | Kingz, for the Kore, One, Sport, Comp 450, Classic and Empowered models |
| Pre-shrunk, cold wash and hang dry | Up to about 1 inch total | Fuji, care instructions for all their gis |
| Untreated or unstated cotton | 5 to 10 percent | The commonly cited range for untreated cotton weaves |
The pattern across every brand that publishes guidance is the same: heat is the variable, not water. Cold water and air drying hold a gi at the size you bought. A hot wash followed by a hot dryer is what moves it a meaningful fraction of a size, and it works on pre-shrunk fabric too, just less.
Weave weight matters as well. Gold BJJ points out that their heavier gis shrink more than their ultralights, which is what you would expect from more cotton per square metre.
Can I shrink a gi that is too big?
Yes, deliberately and carefully. Hot wash, medium dryer, check the fit, repeat only if you need to. Go one cycle at a time, because the process is one-way.
What you cannot do is reverse it. There is no method that returns a gi that has gone too small. Stretching recovers a token amount and no more. This asymmetry is the entire argument for sizing up when you are genuinely stuck between two sizes: one of those mistakes is fixable in an afternoon and the other one is a gi you sell at a loss.
What size gi do I need for IBJJF competition?
Tighter than most people compete in, and the rule got stricter recently. Under the current IBJJF uniform rules, the jacket must reach your thigh, sleeves must come to no more than 2 cm from the wrist with the arm extended straight, and pants must reach no more than 2 cm above the ankle bone. Inspectors also check lapel thickness at 1.3 cm, collar width at 5 cm, and a sleeve opening of 7 cm at full extension.
The 2 cm sleeve and pant tolerance replaced a 5 cm one after the 2024 Gi Worlds. If you last checked your competition gi against the old number, check it again, because a gi that passed inspection two years ago may not now.
Practically, this means the gi you compete in should be the smaller end of your range and it should already be washed. A brand new gi that measures legal on the rack can measure legal-but-worse after a hot wash, and a gi that is 3 cm short at the wrist is not getting on the mat regardless of how much you paid for it.
Sizing for an older body
Two things change once you are past 40, and neither appears on any size chart.
The first is that shoulder range of motion tends to go before anything else does. A competition-tight jacket asks a lot of your shoulders every time you frame or grip over the top, and if you have any impingement history, that snug A2 will find it. A standard fit in the correct size costs you very little in grip material and makes the session more comfortable in a way that shows up over the course of a year.
The second is that most of us are not the weight we were, in one direction or the other. If you are actively losing weight, do not buy a competition-tight gi at your current number, because a gi that fits at 195 lb is loose at 180 and you cannot let it back out. Size for where you are now with a standard fit, and shrink it later if you need to.
The broader version of this argument, including what to prioritise when your body has opinions, is in BJJ after 40.
How this calculator works
There is no clever maths here, which is deliberate. It is a lookup against the brands’ own published tables, with a small amount of logic on top.
- Your height and weight are converted to inches and pounds.
- For each brand, every size whose weight band contains your weight becomes a candidate. That follows the weight-first rule.
- Among those candidates, the one whose height band also contains your height wins. That is what selects a Long or Husky variant automatically when one fits you better.
- If nothing matches on height, the closest height band is used and the result says so, because it means you are outside what that brand cuts at your weight.
- Your build preference breaks ties towards an L or H variant when one is available at your weight.
- The shrink figure interpolates between the published range for your fabric state, positioned by how much heat your washing routine applies.
Brands included, with the chart used for each: Fuji men’s BJJ gi chart, Kingz standard models chart, Kingz Balistico and Ultralight chart, Gold BJJ unisex chart, and a general industry baseline for brands not listed. The baseline is a rough average and it is labelled that way in the results, because using it for a specific brand is exactly the mistake this tool exists to prevent.
What the calculator cannot know
- Model-level variation inside a brand. Kingz publishes two separate charts because the Balistico and Ultralight are cut slimmer than the rest of their line. Other brands have the same variation without documenting it.
- Your proportions. Two people at 5 foot 10 can have a two-inch difference in wingspan, and the one with longer arms needs the L cut regardless of what the height band says.
- Production drift. Charts are updated, factories change, and a 2022 A2 from a brand is not guaranteed to match a 2026 A2 from the same brand.
- Whether it will feel right. Fit preference is genuinely personal. Guard players tend to want room through the hips and shoulders. Pressure passers tend to want less fabric available to grip.
Use the result as a starting point that is far better than guessing, then buy from somewhere with free returns the first time you try a new brand.
Frequently asked questions
What size BJJ gi should I buy if I am 5 foot 10 and 180 lb?
In most brands, an A2. In Fuji it is an A3, because Fuji’s A2 tops out at 170 lb. At 5 foot 10 you are also at the top of the height band for a standard A2 in Kingz, so if your arms are on the long side, an A2L will fit your sleeves better without adding width you do not need.
Do BJJ gis shrink after washing?
Yes, though how much depends almost entirely on heat rather than on the wash itself. Fully pre-shrunk gis lose 1 to 2 percent. Partially pre-shrunk gis, which is most of the market, lose 3 to 5 percent when exposed to heat. Untreated cotton can lose 5 to 10 percent. Cold water with hang drying keeps any of them close to the size you ordered.
Should I size up or size down in a BJJ gi?
Size up when you are genuinely between sizes. A slightly large gi can be shrunk down with a hot wash and a warm dryer, one cycle at a time. A gi that arrives too small cannot be recovered, and if it is tight enough it will also fail IBJJF sleeve and pant measurements. The two mistakes are not symmetrical, so err towards the one you can fix.
Is an A2 the same size in every brand?
No, and the spread is close to a full size. Fuji’s A2 covers 140 to 170 lb, Gold BJJ’s covers 150 to 190 lb, and Kingz’s covers 170 to 190 lb. There is no governing standard for the A0 to A6 scale, so each brand sets its own bands. Always size from the chart of the brand you are buying rather than from the size you wear in another brand.
What is the difference between A2, A2L and A2H?
A2 is the standard cut. A2L keeps the same torso width and adds sleeve and pant length, for tall lean builds. A2H adds width through the chest, shoulders and lapel without the extra length, for shorter heavier builds. If you have been buying a size up so the jacket closes properly and then dealing with pants that are too long, an H variant is probably what you actually need.
What are the IBJJF gi size rules?
The jacket must reach the thigh, sleeves must come within 2 cm of the wrist with the arm extended straight parallel to the ground, and pants must come within 2 cm of the ankle bone. Inspection also checks lapel thickness at 1.3 cm, collar width at 5 cm, and a 7 cm sleeve opening at full extension. The sleeve and pant tolerance tightened from 5 cm to 2 cm after the 2024 Gi World Championships.
Can I mix an A2 jacket with A3 pants?
Yes, and plenty of people do. Many brands sell jackets and pants separately for exactly this reason. Keep both pieces the same brand and colour and it looks entirely normal. For IBJJF competition each piece still has to meet its own measurement, so mixing sizes to fit your proportions can actually help you pass inspection rather than hurt.
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Related reading
A note on accuracy. Every size in this calculator comes from the manufacturer’s own published size chart, retrieved in August 2026. Brands revise their charts, individual models within a brand are cut differently, and manufacturing tolerance is real. Treat the result as a well-informed starting point and confirm against the chart on the product page before ordering. Buying from a retailer with free returns is the only way to be certain with a brand you have not worn.
Sources: FUJI Sports men’s BJJ gi size chart; Kingz size guide, including published shrinkage percentages by model; Gold BJJ gi size chart; IBJJF uniform requirements at ibjjf.com/uniform.