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I grew up watching SpongeBob SquarePants, but I never really thought much about the size of him and his friends. But it’s normal to ask yourself, “how tall is SpongeBob?”
SpongeBob is only about four inches tall, like your average kitchen sponge. The other characters are of similar heights, some taller and others shorter.
As you watch SpongeBob SquarePants, consider how tall the creatures are. They’re a lot smaller than I expected, but most of them are realistic for their given species.
Bottom Line Up Front: SpongeBob is short at four inches tall, but the other characters are also short. Consider how their sizes compare in the series.
How Tall Is SpongeBob?
Sources claim SpongeBob SquarePants is about 4 inches tall, or roughly 10 centimeters. That makes him one of the shortest characters on the show, but he’s still taller than some.
He also weighs about two ounces according to some fans. SpongeBob’s weight probably fluctuates, especially if he absorbs a lot and expands.
While he looks like a kitchen sponge, he’s like a sea sponge as well. Sea sponges can range in height from 3 cm to over 6 feet tall, so in that way, SpongeBob’s height is pretty accurate.
How SpongeBob’s Height Compares to Other Characters
It’s one thing to know how tall SpongeBob is, but you should also compare that to other characters. Like any cartoon, it’s hard to measure the characters exactly.
However, I found a couple of outside sources that suggest a height for most of the popular characters. So while it seems like SpongeBob should be taller, that’s not necessarily the case.
Consider the following SpongeBob SquarePants characters and how tall they usually are. There are some inconsistencies throughout the show.
Patrick Star
As SpongeBob’s best friend, Patrick is about 5.98 inches tall, making him almost 50% taller than the sponge. Of course, Patrick’s height includes his long head.
Like sea sponges, sea stars come in a variety of sizes, from an inch to 3 feet. Patrick falls nicely within that range, so he’s at a pretty accurate height for his species.
The character could also be a bit taller because he’s supposed to be a couple of years older than SpongeBob. While we usually stop growing in our teen years, it makes sense to have an older character be taller.
Squidward Tentacles
Squidward Tentacles is about 10 inches tall, and he’s 9 years older than SpongeBob. The octopus (yes, Squidward’s an octopus and not a squid) has long limbs that help give him his height.
Unfortunately, his height is slightly off the average range for his species. An octopus is about 12 to 36 inches tall, so Squidward might still have some growing left to do.
Then again, he has other inaccuracies, such as only having six limbs instead of eight. Still, he’s taller than many of the other characters, which helps him look bigger like the animal he represents.
Mr. Eugene Krabs
If you count his eyes, Mr. Krabs is about 4.7 inches tall. However, his body is only about 3.8 inches tall, so his eyes make up a lot of his total height.
The shape of his body is somewhat similar to a crab, so that’s a decent design. Like with many other marine animals, crabs can vary significantly in size.
Some crabs are only a few millimeters wide, while others reach 13 feet. Mr. Krabs fits within that range, and he’s about average in height compared to other main characters.
Sandy Cheeks
The squirrel Sandy Cheeks is about four and a third inches tall, so she’s slightly taller than SpongeBob. She’s also about eight months older than him, according to some sources.
An average squirrel’s body is between 5.3 and 11.5 inches, not including their tail. That makes Sandy a bit shorter than others of her species.
However, she has moved underwater, where she’s not meant to live. The amount of pressure at the bottom of the ocean can be really high, and that could keep her from growing taller.
Plankton
The shortest character in SpongeBob SquarePants has to be Plankton, who’s just under 0.4 inches tall. He represents some of the smallest creatures in the ocean, the plankton.
Our favorite Bikini Bottom antagonist falls into the average size range of his kind. Most plankton species are less than an inch in length.
Like the real creature, Plankton is easy to step on. When Mr. Krabs throws him out of his restaurant, Plankton also flies far pretty easily.
Gary
SpongeBob’s pet snail Gary is about 3.1 inches tall, so he’s almost as big as his owner. He looks very similar to the snails we have on land, and he’s pretty realistic.
Snails can be as small as a few centimeters or as tall as a foot. That means Gary falls right in that range, but his eyes are a bit unrealistic.
Real-life snails have eyes that stick out, but they tend to stick forward rather than up. But the design of Gary is certainly cute and looks better for a show.
Pearl Krabs
At 5.1 inches, Pearl is one of the taller characters in Bikini Bottom. However, she appears taller than Squidward despite her listed height being just over 50% of his.
Either way, Pearl is much taller due to her whale head. Not to mention, her height is nowhere near that of a real-life sperm whale, her specific species.
A newborn sperm whale is already 13 feet, and they can grow to be 52 feet as adults. Maybe having a crab as a father gave Pearl short stature.
Mrs. Puff
Mrs. Puff is about 4.5 inches tall, and she can get much larger when she puffs up. In either state, her height falls within the average size range for puffer fish.
Some puffers can be over two feet long, and others are only an inch. Most of Mrs. Puff’s height is in her torso and head as her legs are relatively short.
Of course, puffer fish don’t have legs in real life. It makes sense to want to make most of the character be the body of a fish rather than focus on longer legs.
Karen
Plankton’s computer wife Karen is about the same height as Sandy: four and a third inches. While that makes sense in comparison to Plankton, it’s quite small for a computer.
Especially since the show came out in 1999, our computers back then were a lot larger. Nowadays, though, we have iPhones, which range from 5.18 by 2.53 inches to 6.33 by 3.07 inches.
Older iPhones were even smaller and so closer in size to Karen’s supposed height. Of course, it’s a miracle she survives underwater, so maybe size doesn’t matter.
Larry the Lobster
Larry the Lobster is probably the tallest character with a physical shape (The Flying Dutchman is larger but a ghost). Our favorite lifeguard is 5.9 inches tall, so he’s a lot taller than SpongeBob and some of his friends.
But again, he looks taller than Squidward despite Squidward supposedly being 10 inches. Either way, it’s good to have a taller character be the local lifeguard because he can see over the crowds.
He also has nice muscles than can help him carry others out of the water to safety. Although the average lobster is nine inches, so he’s a bit shorter than his real-life counterparts.
Mermaid Man
Mermaid Man is one of the most unrealistic characters, but that doesn’t mean he’s not a good character. As a human who used to live on land, you’d think he’d be significantly taller than those in Bikini Bottom.
However, some sources claim he’s just over 4.5 inches tall. Maybe his time in the water caused him to shrink, especially if the high levels of pressure got to him.
Of course, he’s also old, so that can contribute to him shrinking. The average adult man is 5 feet 6 inches, so he’s much smaller than even a baby.
Barnacle Boy
Barnacle Boy is Mermaid Man’s sidekick and also a human who used to live on land. He’s a bit taller than his main hero, but he’s still only about 4.8 inches tall.
Once again, he’s significantly smaller than the average adult human and even smaller than many newborns. I have the same theory regarding the pressure you experience at the bottom of the ocean.
That could have caused Barnacle Boy to shrink. Then again, the one power we know Mermaid Man’s belt can do is shrink things, so maybe they used it to become the size of other Bikini Bottom residents.
How Big Is a Kitchen Sponge?
SpongeBob SquarePants more closely resembles a kitchen sponge, even if he lives at the bottom of the sea. I found one kitchen sponge that measures 4.33 by 2.76 by 1.18 inches.
Since SpongeBob is 4 inches tall, he’s pretty close to the size of a lot of sponges. It also looks like the proportions match up for him to be between 2 and 3 inches wide.
Of course, you can find kitchen sponges that are much larger, especially for commercial use. But since most of us watching the show recognize a regular kitchen sponge, the character’s size is pretty accurate.
How Big Is a Pineapple?
Unfortunately, the average pineapple is only about six inches tall. That means SpongeBob would only be able to have one floor in his house, but his home has three floors.
Now, we learn in one episode that his pineapple house fell from higher up in the ocean (probably from a boat). I know people grow massive pumpkins, so maybe large pineapples exist.
Using SpongeBob as a reference, his house is probably about two or three feet tall. He has three stories, and there’s plenty of room above him, so each floor is probably at least twice as tall as he is.
How Tall Is an Easter Island Statue?
Another building we can reference is the height of Squidward’s Easter Island Moai house. However, the size of it isn’t accurate either, but it’s the opposite of SpongeBob’s pineapple.
Easter Island statues are close to 13 feet tall. If you compare Squidward’s home to the pineapple, they’re about the same height (if you include the leaves of the pineapple).
I’d guess that would make both houses a few feet tall. Now, Squidward only has two floors that we see, which I think makes a lot of sense because he’s taller and probably couldn’t have three shorter floors.
How Tall Is a Lobster Trap?
Despite being the Krusty Krab, the popular restaurant looks like a lobster trap. In our world, the average trap is about three or four feet tall.
However, the burger place only has one level, even if the ceilings are quite high. While we can’t compare them directly, it seems to me like the Krusty Krab is shorter than many of the local houses.
Once again, we can use the characters as a reference point for how big the joint is. Squidward looks like he’s a little less than half as tall as the restaurant, which would make it two feet tall or so.
FAQs about How Tall Is SpongeBob?
Answer: Patrick is taller than SpongeBob by almost two inches. Of course, probably a foot of that extra height is the fifth point of Patrick’s star-shaped body.
Their faces are closer in terms of eye level, but Patrick’s face is still higher up than SpongeBob’s.
Answer: As I was looking at the heights of various characters, sources said different things. I found one source saying he’s 10 inches tall, whereas another claims he’s about 5.7 inches.
When you look at all of the other characters and their heights, 5.7 inches seems more accurate.
Answer: At the beginning of the series in 1999, SpongeBob is 13 years old. His birthday is July 14, 1986, so now he’d be 36 years old.
Of course, it seems like SpongeBob is actually older at the start of the show since he has a job and isn’t in school. But maybe in Bikini Bottom, you finish school earlier.
Answer: SpongeBob has said he’s left-handed, but that doesn’t seem true all of the time. For example, there are many instances when he uses his right hand to flip Krabby Patties on the grill.
The character has also said he’s ambidextrous, which means he can use both hands equally. That seems like the more accurate answer, and it helps avoid inconsistencies in the animation.
Final Note on How Tall Is SpongeBob?
Most SpongeBob fans have probably wondered, “how tall is SpongeBob?” It seems like he might be a few feet tall, if we our own size as humans.
However, he’s only about four inches tall as a sea sponge that looks like a kitchen sponge. Other characters range in size from 0.4 inches to over 10 inches.