Maximum shear modulus (G 0 ) has been used in various geotechnical jobs (e.g., seismic site assessment, machine vibration and pile driven). Laboratory and in situ determination of G 0 is not a current practice in Brazil. G0 can be estimated from empirical correlations based on in situ tests like Standard Penetration Test (SPT) and Cone Penetration Test (CPT) in the preliminary design phase. Several empirical correlations to estimate G 0 from SPT N value have been developed and are available in the literature. However, most of these correlations were established based on experience with well-behaved soils formed in temperate and glacial zones, which may not always be used for tropical soils. This paper assessed and discussed the applicability of some correlations for G0 estimative from SPT data in lateritic and saprolitic soils. The classical correlations for sedimentary soils underestimated G 0 of tropical soils. After updating the database, the tropical soils correlations reasonably estimated G 0 for the lateritic ones, which was not the case for the saprolitic soils. It was observed that differentiating the soils only as lateritic or saprolitic was not adequate for a good G 0 estimate for the saprolitic sandy soils. It was found that only the lateritic soils correlation can be used with caution as a preliminary attempt to estimate G 0 from SPT N value in soils with similar characteristics to the ones presented in this paper.