Octopus Lifespans: How Long Do Octopuses Live?

On May 8, 2025, the nature documentary Octopus! was released on Prime. The underwater documentary, produced and narrated by Phoebe Waller-Bridge, tells the fascinating story of an octopus’s incredible journey through the ocean depths. The documentary follows the mysterious creature throughout her lifespan, depicting a heartwarming story that highlights how aware and intelligent these deep-sea animals are.

These magnificent eight-armed creatures live for only one to two years. When compared to the lifespan of other intelligent species, this is shockingly short. For instance, orangutans can live up to 50 years, bottlenose dolphins up to 40 to 50 years, and elephants up to 60 to 70 years or more. Continue reading to learn why this clever, well-adapted, intriguing animal has such a short life.

Background on Octopus Species

Octopuses are invertebrates that live in the ocean. They have large heads, big eyes, and eight long arms with suckers. Their arms are used to catch prey, maneuver around the sea floor, and propel themselves through the water. There are approximately 300 species of octopus, including the common octopus (Octopus vulgaris), the mimic octopus (Thaumoctopus mimicus), the southern blue-ringed octopus (Hapalochlaena maculosa), and the giant Pacific octopus (Enteroctopus dofleini). These are all shallow-water finless octopuses, the most common kind. There are also a handful of species that fall into the deep-water finned octopus category, which have large fins on the sides of their heads.

Why Octopuses Have Short Lifespans

The leading cause of death in octopuses is natural causes. Both male and female octopuses only mate once, and they die shortly after. Males live for a few months after mating before they die, and females spend weeks diligently watching over the eggs. She cleans them and keeps detritus off all 100,000 or more eggs. She focuses solely on ensuring her offspring survive, to the extent that she stops eating and never leaves the nest. Once the eggs hatch, the female octopus dies from a lack of food, having spent all her energy ensuring the safety of her babies. The hatchlings are ready to live on their own.

Researchers have studied what exactly occurs in female octopuses when they die. They studied the optic gland in female octopuses and found that the secretions from the optic gland send a message to the octopus to inhibit digestion and salivation. Researchers have removed the optic gland from female octopuses and found that they live significantly longer.

The Octopus Species that Lives the Longest

Giant Pacific octopuses (Enteroctopus dofleini) are among the longest-lived shallow-water octopus species, living for 3 to 5 years. However, the deep-sea octopus Graneledone boreopacifica has the longest known lifespan, with females brooding eggs for over 4 years. Here’s what’s truly mind-blowing: the females guarding their eggs in this species were not observed eating across the entire 53-month period. Because of the long gestation period, Graneledone boreopacifica is the octopus with the longest known lifespan.

Lifespans of Squids and Cuttlefish

Octopus, squids, and cuttlefish are all cephalopods with similar characteristics. All three are semelparous, with short lifespans. Cuttlefish have an average lifespan of 1 to 2 years, and most squids live 1 to 3 years, though some larger species may live up to 5 years. Nautiluses are another type of cephalopod. They look similar to octopuses but live in a shell and have 90 small limbs without suckers. Nautiluses take 10 to 15 years to mature and can reproduce more than once, so they are not semelparous. Their average lifespan is over 20 years.

Conservation Status of Octopuses

Most species of octopus are not listed as threatened or endangered by the IUCN. Humans are an increasingly significant threat to octopus populations, with overfishing, habitat destruction, pollution, and the rise of octopus farming all posing substantial risks. The fishing industry must adhere to regulations to ensure the populations of these amazing creatures are maintained.