Bisexual vs Pansexual: What's the Difference?

Bisexual and pansexual both describe attraction to more than one gender. Bisexual means attraction to more than one gender, with gender usually still present as a dimension of who someone is drawn to. Pansexual means attraction regardless of gender, where gender is not a factor at all. The two overlap heavily, and many people use both.

What does bisexual mean?

Bisexual describes emotional, romantic or sexual attraction to more than one gender. It does not mean attraction to exactly two genders, and it does not mean equal attraction. The definition most widely used inside the bi community comes from the American activist Robyn Ochs, who has been asked to explain the word more times than almost anyone alive:

"I call myself bisexual because I acknowledge that I have in myself the potential to be attracted, romantically and/or sexually, to people of more than one gender, not necessarily at the same time, not necessarily in the same way, and not necessarily to the same degree."

Two things fall out of that. First, bisexuality includes attraction to non-binary people. The bi movement has said this in print since at least the Bisexual Manifesto published in Anything That Moves in 1990, which stated plainly that bisexuality is not about two genders. Second, the proportions vary enormously between people and can shift over a lifetime. There is no ratio you have to hit.

Read the full bisexual entry for the history, the flag and the myths.

What does pansexual mean?

Pansexual describes attraction to people regardless of their gender. The phrase people use most often is "gender-blind": gender is not one of the things being weighed. Pansexual comes from the Greek pan, meaning all, though the word points at gender being irrelevant rather than at every gender being included.

As a distinct identity label, pansexual is younger than bisexual in common use. It circulated in queer and kink spaces through the 1980s and 1990s and became widespread as a personal identity in the 2000s and 2010s, helped along by the pansexual flag appearing online around 2010 and by public figures using the word. Read the full pansexual entry for detail.

Bisexual vs pansexual: side by side

	Bisexual	Pansexual
Core meaning	Attraction to more than one gender	Attraction regardless of gender
Is gender part of the experience?	Usually yes, as one dimension among several	Usually no, gender is not a factor
Includes non-binary people?	Yes	Yes
Requires equal attraction?	No	No
First recorded use	1892 in its modern English sense, in the translation of Krafft-Ebing's Psychopathia Sexualis	Circulating from the 1970s; widespread as a personal identity from the 2000s
Flag	Michael Page, 5 December 1998	Anonymous, online, around 2010
Says anything about behaviour?	No	No
Compatible with the other word?	Yes. Many people use both, either together or in different settings.

Where the two words actually differ

The honest answer is that the difference is one of emphasis, not eligibility. There is no group of people that one word covers and the other excludes. Both include attraction to non-binary people. Both allow uneven attraction. Both describe attraction rather than behaviour.

What differs is what the word draws attention to. Bisexual points at range. Pansexual points at irrelevance. Someone who notices gender, has different feelings about different genders, and is drawn to more than one, often finds bisexual describes that better. Someone for whom gender genuinely does not register as a variable often finds pansexual describes that better. Plenty of people could truthfully say either.

Which word should I use?

Whichever one is more useful to you. That is the whole answer, and we mean it.

A few things people find worth knowing while they decide:

You are not committing to anything. People change which word they use, sometimes more than once. Nothing is voided by that.
You can use both. "Bi/pan" is common, and some people use bisexual in general conversation and pansexual with people who will understand the distinction, or the reverse.
Context can decide it for you. Bisexual is more widely recognised, which matters at a doctor's appointment or with family. Pansexual may say more inside a queer space where everyone knows both words.
The old argument is not worth inheriting. There was a stretch, mostly online in the 2010s, where people insisted bisexual excluded non-binary people and therefore pansexual was the ethical choice. Bi organisations had already rejected that framing decades earlier. If you meet the argument, you are not obliged to have it.
Neither word obliges you to date anyone. A label describes a capacity for attraction. It is not a promise of behaviour.

If neither fits, there are others: omnisexual, polysexual, or simply queer.

Questions people ask

Is pansexual just a newer word for bisexual?

Not quite. They came from different places and carry different emphases, but they describe strongly overlapping experiences. Treating pansexual as a replacement erases people who deliberately chose bisexual, and treating it as an invention erases people for whom the gender-blind framing is the accurate one.

Does bisexual mean only two genders?

No. The bi prefix is a historical accident of a word coined in the nineteenth century, not a limit on who bisexual people are attracted to. Bi organisations have defined the word as attraction to more than one gender since at least 1990.

Can you be bisexual and pansexual at the same time?

Yes, and many people are. Identity labels are not exclusive slots. Some people hold both permanently, others use one as the everyday word and the other as the precise one.

Which word do more people use?

Bisexual, by a wide margin, in survey data and in search volume across Europe. That reflects the word being a century older and more widely recognised. It does not make it more correct.

Do I have to have dated more than one gender to use either word?

No. Both words describe attraction, not history. People who have never dated anyone can be bisexual or pansexual, and so can people who have only ever had one partner.