It is visible to the naked eye as a faint, orange-hued star with an apparent visual magnitude of 4.85.
[2] Based upon an annual parallax shift of 7.1 mas as seen from the Earth,[8] the system is located about 460 light years from the Sun.
It is a periodic microvariable with an amplitude of 0.0055 magnitude and a frequency of 0.36118 cycles per day.
[9] With the supply of hydrogen exhausted at its core, the star has expanded and cooled, now having 31[1] times the Sun's girth.
It is radiating 338.5[1] times the luminosity of the Sun from its swollen photosphere at an effective temperature of 4,420 K.[1] Eta Gruis has a magnitude 11.5 visual companion located at an angular separation of 25.6″ along a position angle of 187°, as of 2012.