Franklin received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1979, had her voice declared a Michigan "natural resource" in 1985,[198] and became the first woman inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987.[199] The National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences awarded her a Grammy Legend Award in 1991, then the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1994. Franklin was a Kennedy Center Honoree in 1994, recipient of the National Medal of Arts in 1999, recipient of the American Academy of Achievement's Golden Plate Award presented by Awards Council member Coretta Scott King,[200][201][202] and was bestowed the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2005 by then President George W. Bush.[25] She was inducted into the Michigan Rock and Roll Legends Hall of Fame in 2005,[203] and the Rhythm & Blues Hall of Fame in 2015.[204] Franklin became the second woman inducted to the UK Music Hall of Fame in 2005. She was the 2008 MusiCares Person of the Year, performing at the Grammys days later. In 2019 she was awarded a Pulitzer Prize Special Citation "[f]or her indelible contribution to American music and culture for more than five decades".[205] Franklin was the first individual woman to receive a Pulitzer Prize Special Citation.[206] At the beginning of her career, Siouxsie Sioux named her as her favourite female singer.[207]

In 2010 Franklin was ranked first on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the "100 Greatest Singers of All Time"[3] and ninth on their list of "100 Greatest Artists of All Time".[208] Following news of Franklin's surgery and recovery in February 2011, the Grammys ceremony paid tribute to the singer with a medley of her classics performed by Christina Aguilera, Florence Welch, Jennifer Hudson, Martina McBride, and Yolanda Adams.[209] That same year, she was ranked 19th among the Billboard Hot 100 All-Time top artists.[210][211]

When Rolling Stone listed the "Women in Rock: 50 Essential Albums" in 2002 and again in 2012, it listed Franklin's 1967 I Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You at number one.[212] Inducted to the GMA Gospel Music Hall of Fame in 2012, Franklin was described as "the voice of the civil rights movement, the voice of black America".[213][214] Asteroid 249516 Aretha was named in her honor in 2014.[215] The next year, Billboard named her the greatest female R&B artist of all time.[216] In 2018, Franklin was inducted in to the Memphis Music Hall of Fame.

"American history wells up when Aretha sings", President Obama explained in response to her performance of "A Natural Woman" at the 2015 Kennedy Center Honors. "Nobody embodies more fully the connection between the African-American spiritual, the blues, R&B, rock and roll—the way that hardship and sorrow were transformed into something full of beauty and vitality and hope."[108] Franklin later recalled the 2015 Kennedy Center Honors as one of the best nights of her life.[108] On June 8, 2017, the City of Detroit honored Franklin's legacy by renaming a portion of Madison Street, between Brush and Witherell Streets, Aretha Franklin Way.[217] The Aretha Franklin Post Office Building was named in 2021, and is located at 12711 East Jefferson Avenue in Detroit, Michigan.