'Hot Stuff' received Gold certification from the RIAA on 20 April 1979 and was later certified platinum on 1 August 1979. The single was Donna Summer's second to top the Billboard Hot 100 chart, ranking at #1 for three non-consecutive weeks in June 1979, as her next number-one single, 'Bad Girls', debuted at #5 in the final week. In Billboard's 1979 Year-End chart, 'Hot Stuff' earned the #7 position, gaining Summer the distinction of being the year's only artist with two entries in the Year-End Top Ten.
For 'Hot Stuff', Summer won her second Grammy Award, becoming in 1980 the inaugural recipient of the honor for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance. At the Grammy Awards ceremony, she performed a live medley of the prior year's hits as a duet with Kenny Rogers.