Meet the Biggest Spiders in the World and Where to Find These Massive Arachnids

What is the largest spider in the world? Here are some of the biggest spiders worldwide, where they live, and how dangerous they are.

By Stephen C. George
Oct 24, 2023 8:30 PMJun 30, 2025 9:44 PM
Biggest spiders in the world: Tarantula, King Baboon
Biggest spiders in the world: Tarantula, King Baboon (Credit: Audrey Snider-Bell/Shutterstock)

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Key Takeaways on the Biggest Spiders

  • The Megarachne was a prehistoric creature once thought to be the biggest spider to live on Earth with a leg span of 20 inches and a body that was 21 inches long. However, the fossil was actually a long-extinct sea scorpion. 

  • Some of today’s largest spiders include: the King Baboon spider, the Face-Sized Tarantula, the Brazilian Giant Tawny Red Tarantula, the Giant Huntsman spider, and the Goliath Bird-Eating Tarantula.

  • You can find all of these spiders on almost every continent worldwide in forests, deserts, caves, marshes, and grasslands.


It was considered the biggest spider ever to scuttle across the Earth. Or so scientists in Argentina thought when they uncovered the fossil of what they inevitably dubbed Megarachne — a name worthy of a classic B-movie monster.

While Megarachne would never have been big enough to go up against Godzilla, it was nothing you’d want to find under your bed either. The 300-million-year-old fossil revealed a creature with a leg span of nearly 20 inches and a body that was even longer — 21 inches.

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