Men's 400 metres world record progression
The first world record in the 400 m for men was recognized by the International Amateur Athletics Federation, now known as World Athletics, in 1912. The IAAF ratified Charles Reidpath's 48.2 s performance set at that year's Stockholm Olympics as a world record, but it also recognized the superior mark over run by Maxie Long in 1900 as a world record.
Up to and including 2021, World Athletics has ratified 24 outdoor world records in the event.
The following tables show the world record progression in the men's 400 metres, as ratified by World Athletics.
Indoor
Indoor records are run on a shorter 200 metres track. "y" indicates marks were set over the imperial distance, and an asterisk indicates a record was repeated. All records since Schönlebe's 45.41 in 1986 were ratified by the IAAF.Outdoor
Records 1912–1976
| Time | Auto | Athlete | Nationality | Location of race | Date | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 47.8y | Maxie Long |  United States|1896Records post-1976From 1975, the IAAF accepted separate automatically electronically timed records for events up to 400 metres. Starting January 1, 1977, the IAAF required fully automatic timing to the hundredth of a second for these events.Lee Evans' 1968 Olympic gold medal victory time of 43.86 was the fastest recorded result to that time.
For the period when the record automatic time was Lee Evans' mark of 43.86, the progression excluding races run at high altitude was as follows:
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