The ten largest spiders in the world measured leg tip to leg tip, from a cave-dwelling huntsman the width of a ruler down to a dune spider the size of a saucer.
Quick answer: 1. Giant huntsman spider, 2. Goliath birdeater, 3. Brazilian salmon pink birdeater, 4. Brazilian giant tawny red tarantula, 5. Chaco golden knee tarantula, 6. King baboon spider, 7. Colombian giant tarantula, 8. Face-sized tarantula, 9. Brazilian wandering spider, 10. Sand-dwelling huntsman spider.
There are two ways to be the biggest spider, and they produce two different champions. Measure by weight and the Goliath birdeater wins outright - it is a genuinely heavy animal, heavier than some birds. Measure leg tip to leg tip and the title goes to a pale, long-limbed huntsman found in the caves of Laos, which is far lighter but spans about 30 cm, the length of a standard ruler. This list ranks by leg span, the measurement most people mean when they ask how big a spider gets. Eight of the ten are tarantulas; the two that are not are huntsmen, which achieve their size with long thin legs rather than bulk. Worth knowing before you scroll: none of the top three is dangerous to humans. The one on this list that is - the Brazilian wandering spider - is also one of the smallest.
Discovered in 2001 in the cave systems of Khammouane Province, Laos, and generally credited with the largest leg span of any spider at around 30 cm - the length of a standard ruler. Its body is only about 4.6 cm long; almost all of its size is leg.
The heaviest spider in the world and the largest by body size, with a span just under 30 cm and fangs up to 2 cm long. Despite the name it rarely eats birds - earthworms, frogs and insects are the staple. When threatened it rubs its legs together to flick clouds of barbed hairs at whatever is bothering it.
The third-largest spider and the one that comes closest to challenging the Goliath, spanning up to 28 cm with distinctive pinkish hairs on its legs. It is common in the exotic pet trade because it is large, fast-growing and comparatively placid.
A heavyset South American tarantula reaching about 23 cm across. It is also one of the longest-lived spiders known, with females recorded surviving more than 20 years - males rarely make it past two or three.
Named for the gold bands at its leg joints, this Gran Chaco grassland species spans up to about 20.3 cm. Its calm temperament and size have made it one of the most widely kept large tarantulas in the world.
An East African burrowing tarantula spanning about 20 cm, with front legs noticeably thicker than the rest for digging. It is one of the most defensive spiders on this list: cornered, it rears up, hisses by rubbing its legs together, and strikes.
A rainforest tarantula of about 20 cm, striking for the red-orange banding on its legs. It defends itself with an unusual spinning manoeuvre, rotating its body to face an attacker while kicking urticating hairs backwards.
Described as new to science in 2012 from northern Sri Lanka, with a leg span of about 20 cm that earned it its nickname. Unlike the burrowers above it, it is arboreal, living in the hollows of old trees and, increasingly, in abandoned buildings as its forest habitat shrinks.
At about 18 cm the smallest of the giants here, and the only genuinely dangerous one - its venom is among the most potent of any spider, and it is a true wanderer that hunts on the ground at night rather than building a web. Bites on humans are rare and an effective antivenom exists.
Described in 2010 and spanning about 14 cm, this is the largest spider of its type in the Middle East. It lives in the shifting dunes of the Arava Valley, building an underground den with a hinged trapdoor of glued sand grains, and its habitat is already being lost to sand mining.
| # | Name | Scientific name | Leg span (in) | Family | Found in |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Giant huntsman spider | Heteropoda maxima | 11.8 in | Sparassidae (huntsman spiders) | Laos |
| 2 | Goliath birdeater | Theraphosa blondi | 11.8 in | Theraphosidae (tarantulas) | Northern South America |
| 3 | Brazilian salmon pink birdeater | Lasiodora parahybana | 11 in | Theraphosidae (tarantulas) | Atlantic Forest, north-eastern Brazil |
| 4 | Brazilian giant tawny red tarantula | Grammostola anthracina | 9.1 in | Theraphosidae (tarantulas) | Brazil, Uruguay and Argentina |
| 5 | Chaco golden knee tarantula | Grammostola pulchripes | 8 in | Theraphosidae (tarantulas) | Paraguay and northern Argentina |
| 6 | King baboon spider | Pelinobius muticus | 7.9 in | Theraphosidae (tarantulas) | Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania |
| 7 | Colombian giant tarantula | Megaphobema robustum | 7.9 in | Theraphosidae (tarantulas) | Colombia and Brazil |
| 8 | Face-sized tarantula | Poecilotheria rajaei | 7.9 in | Theraphosidae (tarantulas) | Northern Sri Lanka |
| 9 | Brazilian wandering spider | Phoneutria spp. | 7.1 in | Ctenidae (wandering spiders) | Central and South America |
| 10 | Sand-dwelling huntsman spider | Cerbalus aravaensis | 5.5 in | Sparassidae (huntsman spiders) | Arava Valley, Israel and Jordan |
Species are ranked by maximum recorded leg span, the diagonal distance from the tip of one front leg to the tip of the opposite back leg, ordered largest first (rank 1 = widest span). This is worth stating plainly: there is no standard protocol for measuring spider leg span and no registry that verifies it, so published figures for the same species routinely differ by several centimetres depending on whether the specimen was a wild adult female, a captive-raised individual, or a preserved museum specimen. To keep the ranking internally consistent rather than stitched from incompatible sources, the leg-span figures follow Discover Wildlife's compiled ranking throughout, cross-checked at the top of the list against the Natural History Museum, Britannica and Guinness World Records. The giant huntsman and the Goliath birdeater are both credited with a span of about 30 cm and are tied on the metric; the huntsman is placed first because the Natural History Museum, Britannica and World Atlas all credit it with the greatest leg span of any spider, while the Goliath birdeater's undisputed record is for mass. Guinness separately certifies a 28 cm Goliath birdeater specimen collected in Venezuela in 1965. Only living species are included.
It depends on how you measure. By leg span the giant huntsman spider of Laos is generally credited with the title at around 30 cm. By weight and body size the Goliath birdeater of South America wins outright - it is the heaviest spider known, with the largest females weighing well over 100 g.
The largest ones mostly are not. Tarantulas like the Goliath birdeater have big fangs and a painful bite, but their venom is comparable to a bee sting for most people; their main defence is flicking barbed hairs. The genuinely dangerous spider on this list is the Brazilian wandering spider at rank 9, one of the smallest here, whose venom is medically significant - though bites are rare and antivenom is available.
Rarely. The name comes from an 18th-century engraving of one eating a hummingbird. In practice it hunts earthworms, insects, frogs and the occasional small rodent or snake on the forest floor, and it will take nestlings if it finds them.
There is no standard way to measure a spider's leg span and no body that certifies the figures, so published numbers for the same species can differ by several centimetres. Captive specimens are often measured differently from wild ones, and preserved museum specimens shrink. This list follows one compiled ranking throughout so the entries are at least consistent with each other.
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