Great barracuda occur in most tropical and subtropical nearshore habitats throughout the world's oceans and seas. An interesting exception is that of the eastern Pacific Ocean, where the great barracuda has apparently never ranged. This distributional limit is most likely attributable to the isolating effect of the great open expanse of ocean between these areas and the Hawaiian archipelago, swept by cold currents from the Southern Ocean. Smaller schooling species, however, are abundant in many areas of the eastern Pacific. The huge schools of Sphyraena argentea found off the coast of Southern California have historically formed the basis of a lucrative fishery.

Although hard data are somewhat lacking, it appears that great barracuda reach greatest population densities in the Western Atlantic area, in an area extending from Florida to Venezuela that includes the Caribbean Sea and Gulf of Mexico. In the scattered atolls and island groups of the Western and Central Pacific, the species is noticeably more rare and their presence as top predator is usurped by sharks, particularly by the gray reef shark (Carcharhinus amblyrhynchus). This stands as quite an interesting contrast to the situation in the Caribbean area, where sharks are relatively rarely seen in most locations whereas barracuda are omnipresent. Although seen far out at sea on occasion, the great barracuda is primarily associated with shallower waters, particularly over coral reefs, near land or oceanic islands. We should note, however, that these are exactly the habitats most frequented by recreational and scientific divers, so there may be some bias inherent to our ability to only see the species in those habitats we in which we dive.