Megalodon Size Comparison: The Biggest Shark Ever – A-Z Animals

Written by Megan Martin
Updated: May 6, 2025
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While you may know that the megalodon (Otodus megalodon) is the biggest shark to have ever lived, it can be hard to wrap your head around just how big they were, especially because they’ve been extinct for millions of years. However, thanks to scientists, we’ve been able to create a fairly accurate picture of these prehistoric sharks. This article includes more detailed megalodon size comparisons.
Have you ever wondered what swimming with a megalodon would be like? Or if they were bigger than modern marine animals? We’ve created this complete megalodon size comparison guide so you can determine just how these extinct rulers of the sea would measure up to humans, blue whales, prehistoric reptiles, and even the great white shark. 
One of the greatest things about science is that it’s always changing. As a result, we’re always learning more about animals — even those that have been extinct for 3.6 million years, like the megalodon. In fact, it wasn’t until June 2021 that we began to get a better idea of just how big these extinct sea giants were, and it all started with a high school class. A doctoral student teaching a math lesson realized the formula previously used to estimate the length of the megalodon wasn’t quite right. 
Until then, scientists estimated that the megalodon was probably around 50 to 60 feet long. The student and his colleagues developed a new set of equations based on tooth width. They estimated the megalodon was around 65 feet long. However, it didn’t stop there. In 2025, a group of 29 experts (including the former doctoral student) published a study that indicated megalodon could grow to nearly 80 feet long.
While they may be as long as two school buses, megalodons certainly weighed more. New information suggests the megalodon could have weighed as much as 94 tons, or 188,000 pounds. That’s the weight of over five school buses, including the passengers.
With teeth up to 1.5 feet long, the megalodon is definitely not a sea animal you’d want to swim with. There is no doubt that megalodons are one of the largest animals to have ever existed. However, how do they measure up to humans and other deep-sea giants?
If humans are small compared to great whites, they’re minuscule compared to the giant megalodon.
©Sammy33/Shutterstock.com
While you may have already decided that you wouldn’t want to come face to face with one of these prehistoric giants, do you know how big you’d be compared to one? Well, let’s just say you wouldn’t need a megalodon-size comparison guide to know you’d been an easy snack for these giants.
First, you wouldn’t be much larger than the megalodon’s dorsal fin, which scientists have estimated to be around 5 feet and 3 inches tall. That’s just under the average female height in the U.S. New estimates suggest their caudal fin, or tail fin, could have reached nearly 12 feet long. The average male height in the U.S. is 5 feet 9 inches. So, it would take at least 2 average-sized men to equal the length of just the megalodon’s tail. Around 14 men would be required to reach the megalodon’s length.
The average weight of a male in the U.S. is around 200 pounds. Therefore, about 940 full-grown men would equal the weight of a megalodon. Many museums have replica megalodon jaws available that you can take pictures in. People can easily fit inside the mouths of these giant sharks, which had a width of nearly 11 feet and housed 276 teeth. 
Blue whales are the largest animals in the world.
©Atomic Roderick/Shutterstock.com
How does the largest shark to ever existed measure up against the largest animal in the world? Believe it or not, the blue whale can tip the scale in both size and weight compared to the megalodon.
If we examine the largest megalodon size estimates, they max out at 94 tons or 188,000 pounds. However, the blue whale’s maximum weight is around 330,000 pounds. With the largest blue whale ever recorded weighing in at 418,878 pounds, the largest blue whale was likely at least twice the weight of the largest megalodons.
Blue whales can also grow to be well over 80 feet, with the largest said to have reached 110 feet long. Since the largest megalodon was around 80 feet, the blue whale would be about as long as a telephone pole more than a megalodon.
However, since the megalodon’s jaw span was large enough to swallow two human adults standing side by side, it is possible that it could have hunted the docile blue whale, which would not have been able to put up much of a fight against five rows of foot-long teeth. In fact, this may be why blue whales evolved as they did only after the megalodon went extinct. Some scientists believe that baleen whales began getting larger because of the absence of apex predators like megalodon that would hunt them.
The mosasaurus wasn’t a dinosaur, it was a super-sized marine reptile.
©Michael Rosskothen/Shutterstock.com
While it is a prehistoric shark species, the megalodon lived long after the largest dinosaurs had gone extinct. The mosasaurus is also an extinct reptile that lived around 66 million years ago, which is more than 40 million years before megalodon roamed the seas. While they never shared the ancient oceans, based on fossil records, what does a mosasaurus and megalodon size comparison look like?
Fossils of the largest mosasaurus ever found suggest that these reptiles could grow up to 56 feet long, which is nearly 10 feet longer than the height of the letters in the Hollywood sign. However, this is still shorter than the megalodon by 24 feet. The difference is about four times the length of a full-size bed.
Mosasaurus also only weighed a maximum of about 20,000 pounds, which is a fraction of the megalodon’s massive 188,000-pound frame. In fact, it would take over nine mosasaurs to balance the scale with the largest megalodon.
Megalodon teeth could grow up to 1.5 feet long.
©Mark_Kostich/Shutterstock.com
The great white sharks of today are thought to be the relatives of megalodon’s competitors of the past. Both of these sharks are known for ruling the ocean, but would today’s great white shark and the megalodon “sea” eye to eye?
At 4,500 pounds, the great white shark is certainly large. However, it would take around 42 great white sharks to weigh as much as one 188,000-pound megalodon.
In terms of length, the megalodon wins again. The great white shark can grow up to an amazing 20 feet long, which is about the same size as one and a half Volkswagen Beetles. However, it would still take four of the largest adult great whites to reach the same length as a megalodon. 
A great white shark’s tooth is impressive at around three inches long, but it’s nothing compared to the megalodon’s 1.5-foot-long tooth. It would take five great white teeth to equal the length of the largest megalodon’s teeth.
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