In October 2017, the album was certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for accumulating over one million in combined pure sales and album-equivalent units.

[16] On October 24, 2017, the album was certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for combined sales, streaming and track-sales equivalent of one million units.

Khalid Robinson sings in a winning conversational murmur with room for growth, and because the vocals are as unassuming as the words, the song structures he concocts with various pals and pros seems more straightforward than they are.

wrote that the album "generally plays things straight up, not too concerned about chasing bleeding edge sounds but resting nicely in the pocket between conventional R&B and a future-pop-minded audience".

[19] Glenn Gamboa of Newsday gave the album a grade of B+ and summarized that American Teen shows Khalid as a "natural" and "establishes him as one of R&B's up-and-coming stars".

[21] In a three-star review for AllMusic, Andy Kellman said that on lead single "Location" "and through much of what fills out American Teen, [...] Robinson's not one to get worked up.