 It peaked at number 12 on the Billboard component chart for Pop Songs; the song remained on the chart for twenty weeks. However, on the week of June 12, 2010, the song debuted at number ninety on the Billboard Hot 100. It has since peaked at No. 24, becoming (at the time) the most successful Paramore single overall (outside of alternative airplay – Misery Business remains their most-successful alternative-pop airplay single to date). It was their third top forty hit in the US, preceding Still Into You and Ain 't It Fun, which became their fourth and fifth top forty hits, respectively. "The Only Exception" also became the band's first foray onto Adult Contemporary stations, peaking at number 28 on the component Billboard Adult Contemporary chart. The track was more successful internationally, peaking generally within the top twenty on multiple countries'charts. On the New Zealand RIANZ singles chart, it debuted at number thirty-eight on February 22, 2010. The following week, the song moved up fifteen positions to number twenty-three. The song peaked at number thirteen. After four weeks on the chart, "The Only Exception" peaked at number two on the United Kingdom's Rock Chart on March 14, 2010, staying at that position for three weeks but moving up to number one on the chart's issue date of April 5, 2010. The song entered the UK Singles Chart at number eighty on March 28, 2010. It peaked at number thirty-one. The track peaked at number forty-seven in Austria on March 28, 2010. The single also debuted as its peak position, number eighty-four, on the Eurochart Hot 100 Singles chart on April 24, 2010. "The Only Exception" debuted at number fifty-nine in Brazilian Hot 100 Airplay chart in June 2010, becoming the group's first single to enter the Brazilian charts, achieving the following months the position at No. 32.
