Saints were among the favourites for relegation when they kicked off their first SPL season for seven years last summer but they capped a dream return to the top flight on Sunday with a 3-1 win at Aberdeen.
That result ensured a second successive campaign among the elite with all five post-split fixtures still to play.
"The players deserve great credit for what they've achieved this year," said manager McInnes.
"There's no trophy at the end of it, as there was last season for winning the league.
"But I put the achievement of staying up this season on a par with getting up."
McInnes, who is in his first season managing in the top flight, always had confidence Saints would avoid the drop.
But not even he could imagine they would have been challenging for a place in the top six right up until the final weekend before the split.
"We always felt we were capable of staying in the league; I always felt we had the players had do well in the SPL," he said.
"If truth be told, I didn't think we'd be where we are.
"In the last few weeks, we tried to get sixth and we never, ever thought we'd have a chance of that.
"That fact that we took it to the last game before the split is of huge credit.
"I thought we'd finish somewhere between relegation and where are now."
Despite being able to finish no higher than seventh place, McInnes has ordered his players to maintain their form for the rest of the season, starting with tomorrow's game against struggling St Mirren.
Their performances in the final five matches could help determine whether they have a future at McDiarmid Park as McInnes looks to make further improvements to his squad.
But it appears some of them may have already done enough to earn new deals.
"Hopefully, in the next week we'll have something to report," said McInnes.
"We'll try to get moving on a few things."
Saints' success is also likely to see some of their brightest stars appear on the radar of bigger clubs this summer.
McInnes has no interest in losing his best players and warned it would take big money to convince the club to sell.
"Good players are always going to attract interest," he said.
"We're in very strong position in that we don't have to sell.
"The chairman regards the players as I do and I think it would take the right amount of money to for anything to happen.
"That's something to deal with as it comes along."
Source: Team Talk
Source: Team Talk