Although a music video for the song was never filmed, it was given a promotional clip for the remix version, taken from a performance at the 2008 Disney Channel Games.

[5] The writing group has executed numerous songs recorded by Cyrus, contributing to a large part of all three of her studio albums.

[13] "See You Again"'s refrains detail previous scenes of an encounter between the couple: "The last time I freaked out / I just kept looking down / I st-st-stuttered when you asked me what I'm thinking 'bout.

Chuck Taylor of Billboard felt that, by offering meaningful airplay to "See You Again", mainstream radio stations were getting with the program.

Taylor described the song as "a sassy, uptempo stinger that adds appealing youthful buzz to the airwaves" and complimented Cyrus' vocals with comparisons to Hilary Duff and Avril Lavigne.

[13] Sal Cinquemani of Slant Magazine said that the song "managed to click with non-tween listeners thanks to its new-wavy dance beat, spaghetti-western guitars and a surprisingly spry vocal performance that's gutsier than anything her fellow Disney Channel superstar Hilary Duff has ever put to digital.

"[10] Mikael Wood of the Los Angeles Times believed the song was "no shortage of crafty tween-rock gems".

[11] Josh Timmermann of PopMatters referred to the remix as the best song on Breakout, describing it as a "marvelous slice of teenaged life set to club rock beats."

[12] George Lang of The Oklahoman thought the inclusion of the song's remix on Breakout was used to cover more musical genres in order to appeal to a wider fanbase.

[16] In 2023, upon the release of "Flowers", Billboard staff ranked all Cyrus' lead singles from worst to best and put "See You Again" second in which Jason Lipshutz wrote that the song "transcends traditional teen pop and morphs into a rave-up for all ages when that chorus hits" and "remains a karaoke favorite, underrated workout track and humble salute to best friends named Leslie everywhere".

[21] As of March 2023, "See You Again" has sold over 3,000,000 copies in the United States and was certified triple platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).

[23] The single was certified platinum by the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) for the sale of over 70,000 copies.

It eventually peaked at number 11[25] and was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of New Zealand (RIANZ) for the shipment of 7,500 copies.

[31] Cyrus also performed the song on Idol Gives Back, as she continued to promote the single in the United States.

[36] In 2008, Cyrus performed the song at the 2008 Zootopia,[37] Good Morning America,[38] Today,[39] and BBC Switch in the United Kingdom.

The event was held on January 19, 2009, in Washington D.C. at the Verizon Center to celebrate the inauguration of Barack Obama as President of the United States.

[43] The song has been performed at the twentieth annual A Time for Heroes Celebrity Carnival,[44][45] Rock in Rio concerts in Lisbon, Portugal,[citation needed] and Madrid, Spain,[46] the 1515 Club in Paris, France,[47] Heaven and G-A-Y in London, England.

[48] Cyrus and the multiple backup dancers performed elaborate dance routines as images on overhead screens depicted geometric patterns.

[14] Cyrus performed "See You Again" for the BBC Radio 1 Live Lounge accompanied with other songs like "Malibu", "Younger Now", "Party in the U.S.A." and a cover of Roberta Flack's "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face".

Cyrus delighted fans by performing 'See You Again' during her 2021 headlining set at Lollapalooza Music Festival in Chicago.

Because of it, Fearless Records decided to reserve a spot for them on their compilation Punk Goes Pop 2 (2009), where they performed a cover version of "See You Again", produced by Mike Green.