Like its sister institution EPFL, it is part of the Swiss Federal Institutes of Technology Domain, part of the Swiss Federal Department of Economic Affairs, Education and Research. In the 2021 edition of QS World University Rankings, ETH Zurich was ranked 6th in the world, placing it as the second-best European university after the University of Oxford. In the 2020 QS World University Rankings by subject, it ranked 4th in the world for engineering and technology (2nd in Europe) and 1st for earth & marine science. Also, ETH was rated 8th in the world in the Times Higher Education World University Rankings of 2020.

The university is an attractive destination for international students thanks to low tuition fees of 809 CHF per semester, PhD and graduate salaries that are amongst the world's highest, and a world-class reputation in academia and industry. There are currently 22,200 students from over 120 countries, of which 4,180 are pursuing doctoral degrees.

As of November 2019, 21 Nobel laureates, 2 Fields Medalists, 2 Pritzker Prize winners, and 1 Turing Award winner have been affiliated with the Institute, including Albert Einstein. Other notable alumni include John von Neumann and Santiago Calatrava It is a founding member of the IDEA League and the International Alliance of Research Universities (IARU) and a member of the CESAER network.