The body has pale cinnamon-brown or greyish fur that fades to near-white towards the middle of the belly.

A distinctive crest of hair rises from a small lappet between the ears.

This is relatively small and bland in females, but is three times larger, at up to 15 mm (0.59 in) long, and striking bi-coloured in males, being reddish chestnut at the base, and whitish above.

[2] The crest is especially well developed in breeding males, and helps to disperse scent from a gland at its base.

[3] Chapin's free-tailed bat is found across much of central and southern Africa, between Ethiopia and South Sudan in the northeast, the Republic of the Congo in the northwest, and northern Namibia, Botswana, and Zimbabwe in the south.