The album earned a quadruple platinum certification by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) in the United States.

Brown co-wrote half of the tracks along with different writers, including Sean Garrett, James Fauntleroy, Johntá Austin and Tank.

It has since become one of the highest-charting singles of Brown's solo career, entering the foreign music markets, where his previous efforts have failed to these charts.

Andy Kellman of AllMusic praised Brown's singing ability while reviewing the album and noted that its material "[pushes] all the right target-demographic buttons".

[3] Rob Sheffield from Rolling Stone said that “Brown seals the deal with Exclusive, an all-grown-up album on a level with Justin Timberlake's Justified (2002), Rihanna's Good Girl Gone Bad (2007) or even Bobby Brown's King of Stage (1986)", ending up saying "it's hard to imagine he doesn't have an album's worth of hits here".

[9] Mark Hammers of Boston Globe in a positive review said that "If there was ever a record created to turn an R&B singer into a superstar, it's Brown's sophomore effort".

[6] Vibe's Iyana Robertson stated that on Exclusive Brown is "tapping more electric up-tempos, swimming deep in hip-hop waters and annihilating the pop arena".

[2] HotNewHipHop in a retrospective review commented that "Exclusive undeniably cemented Chris Brown's foothold in the music industry as more than a fleeting teenage sensation.

Its release heralded the arrival of a versatile artist capable of sculpting his youthful exuberance into a more polished, varied sound.

"[14] Neil Drumming from Entertainment Weekly rated the album a B− saying that, "Like his onscreen (This Christmas) character, Brown is most charming when he's playing up his youth: singing of MySpace romance, meeting his girl's 'pops,' and such".

But he also said, "sadly, Brown's adolescent voice and playful scatting — while cute — are steamrolled by pushy collaborators, whether it's those Stargate guys (Ne-Yo, Rihanna) falling back on that ol' guitar noodling, or T-Pain milking his vocoder.

"[15] Michael Arceneaux of PopMatters wrote, "Exclusive seems aimless, an album where Brown is doing what he's told versus being the anchor of his own ship.

[17] On June 22, 2008, Fearne & Reggie revealed on their UK's chart show BBC Radio 1, that all three tracks from the album Exclusive have appeared on the top forty.

In 2021, the album was certified quadruple platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for sales of over four million copies in the United States.