According to the sheet music published by Kobalt Music Publishing America, Inc. on the site Musicnotes.com, the song is composed in the key of Eb minor in time signature with a tempo of 108 beats per minute. Grande's vocals range spans from the low note Eb4 to the high note Ab5 A disco-pop and R&B song, "Greedy" opens with Grande introducing the title using high vocal register, the first verse contains a "groovy bass" and faster breathy vocals harmonizes around the end of each line. As noted by Adam.R Holz of Plugged In, the first verses uses a suggestive double entendre about sexual attraction. The pre-chorus is backed by synths that dropped out during the refrain where Grande singing: "Baby, you got lucky cause you're rocking with the best"/"And I'm greedy"/I ain't talking money, I'm just physically obsessed." Describing the lyrics, the editor Alex Rhiannon noted that "she describes a relationship in which it sounds like she's been trying to hold herself back and be chill, but she can't take it any longer, and needs to tell the guy how she feels." Horns, bass and drums are introduced during the chorus.
Critical reception
Billboards critic Katie Atkinson described the song as a "throwback trifle, which casts Grande as a lady Bruno Mars." While Christopher R. Weingarten from Rolling Stone call the song as "uptown dunky of nonsense". Annie Zaleski from The A.V. Club commented: "The horn-peppered highlight “Greedy” in particular is an exuberant R&B-pop earworm on which she has a blast indulging her inner gospel diva. A reviewer from Sputnikmusic call it as "slick and incredibly fun" and wrote the song "does all it can to save an otherwise middling second half of the album'. Reviewing the albumDangerous Woman, Digital Spy's Lewis Corner described it as "a shiny disco-pop number with a groove so infectious the World Health Organization would have good grounds to label it an epidemic. And there's good reason for that, because the moral of this story is that Ariana has caught all the feels for her new boyfriend and she wants more, more, more." Auin Moreland of Pitchfork considered "Greedy" one of the highlights on the album, the editor described it as a romp that announces that Grande truly shines when she is given center stage. Reviewing the song for Nylon, Jenna Igneri wrote positively: "Greedy" is everything you'd expect from the petite pop princess. It's upbeat and catchy, and very Ariana Grande, as she belts out lyrics such as, "You know that I'm greedy for love." There's no doubt that it'll have you dancing all summer long."
Live performances
To promote Dangerous Woman, Grande performed "Greedy" on Good Morning America as a part of the "Central Park Summer Concert", during the show she also performed "Dangerous Woman" and "Be Alright". She also performed the song as part of her album showcase for Vevo on May 21, 2016. Grande performed the song during the Summertime Ball 2016. The song was included on the set list of her Dangerous Woman Tour during its performance, during which counterfeit money featuring Grande's face hit the stage.
