The ten snakes with the most potent venom by subcutaneous LD50 in mice, in saline: from the inland taipan's 0.025 mg/kg to the mainland tiger snake's 0.118 mg/kg.
The Inland Taipan (Oxyuranus microlepidotus) has the most potent venom tested, with a subcutaneous LD50 in mice of 0.025 mg/kg in saline. Dubois' Sea Snake is second at 0.044 mg/kg and the Eastern Brown Snake third at 0.053 mg/kg. The ranking uses that LD50 basis, lowest first, from Wikipedia's Venomous snake table, as of October 2026. It measures toxicity, not danger to people.
Venom potency is measured by LD50, the dose that kills half of a group of test mice, in milligrams of venom per kilogram of body weight. A lower number means more potent venom. The result depends on how the venom is given (under the skin, into a vein, or into the abdomen) and on what it is diluted in, so values are only comparable when the method is the same. This list uses one basis for every snake: subcutaneous injection in mice, with the venom in saline. On that basis the inland taipan is far ahead at 0.025 mg/kg. Five of the top ten are sea snakes or sea kraits. The ranking measures toxicity only, not how much venom a snake delivers, how often it bites people, or how many deaths it causes.
The inland taipan has the most potent venom of any snake tested in mice: a subcutaneous LD50 of 0.025 mg/kg in saline, and 0.01 mg/kg when the venom is diluted in 0.1% bovine serum albumin. It lives in the remote semi-arid interior of Australia and rarely meets people.
Dubois' sea snake is the most venomous sea snake in the table, at 0.044 mg/kg subcutaneous in saline. It lives on reefs and sea beds from the Coral Sea to the Indian Ocean.
The eastern brown snake has a subcutaneous LD50 of 0.053 mg/kg in saline (0.041 mg/kg in 0.1% BSA). It is the most potent land snake after the inland taipan and is common around farmland and towns in eastern Australia.
The yellow-bellied sea snake, which lives in the open ocean rather than on reefs, has a subcutaneous LD50 of 0.067 mg/kg in saline.
Peron's sea snake, also called the horned sea snake for the spiny scales above its eyes, has a subcutaneous LD50 of 0.079 mg/kg in saline.
The coastal taipan has a subcutaneous LD50 of 0.105 mg/kg in saline. The often-quoted 0.064 mg/kg is the figure for venom diluted in 0.1% BSA, a different test condition. Its venom contains taipoxin, a potent presynaptic neurotoxin.
The many-banded krait of southern China and mainland Southeast Asia has a subcutaneous LD50 of 0.108 mg/kg in saline. Its venom is the source of bungarotoxins, the neurotoxins named after the krait genus Bungarus.
The black-banded sea krait has a subcutaneous LD50 of 0.111 mg/kg in saline. Sea kraits hunt in the sea but come ashore to rest and lay eggs.
The beaked (hook-nosed) sea snake has a subcutaneous LD50 of 0.1125 mg/kg in saline. It lives in shallow coastal waters, estuaries and river mouths of the tropical Indo-Pacific.
The mainland tiger snake of south-eastern Australia rounds out the top ten at 0.118 mg/kg subcutaneous in saline, the same value as in 0.1% BSA.
| # | Name | Scientific name | Region (per source table) | SC LD50, 0.1% BSA | IV LD50 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Inland Taipan (Oxyuranus microlepidotus) | Oxyuranus microlepidotus | Australia | 0.01 mg/kg | Not listed |
| 2 | Dubois' Sea Snake (Aipysurus duboisii) | Aipysurus duboisii | Coral Sea, Arafura Sea, Timor Sea and Indian Ocean | Not listed | Not listed |
| 3 | Eastern Brown Snake (Pseudonaja textilis) | Pseudonaja textilis | Australia, Papua New Guinea, Indonesia | 0.041 mg/kg | 0.01 mg/kg |
| 4 | Yellow-Bellied Sea Snake (Hydrophis platurus) | Hydrophis platurus | Tropical oceanic waters | Not listed | Not listed |
| 5 | Peron's Sea Snake (Hydrophis peronii) | Hydrophis peronii | Gulf of Siam, Taiwan Strait, Coral Sea Islands and other places | Not listed | Not listed |
| 6 | Coastal Taipan (Oxyuranus scutellatus) | Oxyuranus scutellatus | Australia | 0.064 mg/kg | 0.013 mg/kg |
| 7 | Many-Banded Krait (Bungarus multicinctus) | Bungarus multicinctus | Mainland China, Taiwan, Vietnam, Laos, Burma | Not listed | 0.061 mg/kg |
| 8 | Black-Banded Sea Krait (Laticauda semifasciata) | Laticauda semifasciata | Eastern coast of the Malay Peninsula, Brunei, and Halmahera, Indonesia | Not listed | Not listed |
| 9 | Beaked Sea Snake (Hydrophis schistosus) | Hydrophis schistosus | Tropical Indo-Pacific | 0.164 mg/kg | Not listed |
| 10 | Mainland Tiger Snake (Notechis scutatus) | Notechis scutatus | Australia | 0.118 mg/kg | 0.014 mg/kg |
Snakes are ranked by murine subcutaneous (SC) LD50 with venom in saline, in mg/kg, lowest first, using the 'Most venomous snakes of the world' table in Wikipedia's Venomous snake article. That table cites Broad, Sutherland and Coulter (Toxicon, 1979), B. G. Fry's LD50 compilation sorted by route of injection (2012), and the Australian Venom Research Unit. Every metric is from the table's 'SC in saline' column; the 'SC in 0.1% bovine serum albumin' and intravenous values are shown only as facts and never used for ranking. Species without an SC saline value in that table are not ranked. LD50 measures toxicity to mice; it does not measure danger to people.
By subcutaneous LD50 in mice, the inland taipan (Oxyuranus microlepidotus) of Australia: 0.025 mg/kg with the venom in saline. Dubois' sea snake is second at 0.044 mg/kg and the eastern brown snake third at 0.053 mg/kg.
LD50 depends on the test method. Venom injected into a vein usually gives a lower figure than venom injected under the skin, and venom diluted in 0.1% bovine serum albumin gives a lower figure than venom in plain saline. For the coastal taipan, for example, the source table gives 0.105 mg/kg in saline and 0.064 mg/kg in BSA. Lists that mix these methods rank snakes on different scales.
No. LD50 measures how toxic a venom is to mice. It does not measure how much venom a snake injects, how often it meets people, or how many people it kills. The black mamba and king cobra are not in this top ten, but both can inject large amounts of venom.
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