How does the common octopus see?

The common octopus (Octopus vulgaris) is a mollusc in the order Octopoda. Its eyes belong to the vision type Cephalopod colourblind polarisation: 1 opsin (colourblind) with polarisation contrast and shaped pupils; firefly squid has 3 pigments.

Measured in this species: colour. Measured colour or sharpness: a measured receptor set or acuity in this species; other dials come from relatives or group defaults. Every value below carries its evidence level and sources; nothing is typed by hand.

Sample scene drawn in code: a face with red lips, a green shirt, red and green apples, flowers and a colour strip, as a person sees it. — The sample scene as a person sees it.

The same sample scene rendered by the See Like Animals engine for the common octopus's eyes, using the values in the table below. — The same scene rendered for the common octopus (60° field of view, daylight).

See your photo as the common octopusThis species is part of the full catalogue in the tool (full unlock). Your photo stays on your device.

What stands out

It has one receptor class for colour, so it sees brightness but no hue.
It stops seeing flicker at 30 Hz, against 60 Hz for people in this dataset, so fast motion looks choppier to it.^[4][5]

The six dials

Evidence levels: how the tiers work. "Measured" means a value measured in this species; "Estimated" values come from a close relative or an eye-size formula.

Vision values for the common octopus (Octopus vulgaris), catalogue-v1
Dial	Value	Evidence	Sources
Colour	Colour receptors 1 receptor class: 472.5 nm (SWS (blue)) measured in this species	Measured (not re-verified)	^[1][2]
Sharpness	No value in the catalogue.
Field of view	No value in the catalogue.
Sharp zones (foveas)	No value in the catalogue.
Night vision	Rods vs cones no rods (invertebrate photoreceptors)	Group default
Motion (flicker fusion)	Flicker fusion frequency 30 Hz group default: median of tier-A values in vision type V28 within phylum Mollusca (1 species: Sepia officinalis)	Group default	^[3]

Other senses

polarisation vision: optional overlay of degree/angle of linear polarisation (Group default)

Comparisons

Common octopus vs peacock mantis shrimp

Related animals

Gloomy octopus same vision type
Gold-spot octopus same vision type
Hammer octopus same vision type
Long arm octopus same vision type
Musky octopus same vision type
North Pacific giant octopus same vision type

More molluscs: all molluscs with measured vision data.

Sources

Chung W, Marshall N 2016. Comparative visual ecology of cephalopods from different habitats. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2016.1346
Kelber A, Vorobyev M, Osorio D. 2003. Animal colour vision - behavioural tests and physiological concepts. Biol Rev 78:81-118. doi.org/10.1017/S1464793102005985
species_v1:Bullock et al. 1991 (via Lafitte et al. 2022)
Healy K, McNally L, Ruxton GD, Cooper N, Jackson AL. 2013. Metabolic rate and body size are linked with perception of temporal information. Animal Behaviour 86:685-696. Table 1. doi.org/10.1016/j.anbehav.2013.06.018
Inger R, Bennie J, Davies TW, Gaston KJ. 2014. Potential biological and ecological effects of flickering artificial light. PLoS ONE 9(5): e98631. Table 3. doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0098631

Every value cites its sources (all sources). Data: catalogue-v1, built 2026-09-29. Accuracy notes: how accurate is this?