It was a single bay biplane with rectangular plan wings mounted without stagger but with marked dihedral and braced with pair of parallel, airfoil section interplane struts.

There were tandem open cockpits, the forward one under the upper wing, which was mounted well above it, and the other just aft of the trailing edge, which had a rounded cut-out to assist the pilot's upward vision.

The empennage was conventional, with a tailplane on the upper fuselage and a broad chord, swept-edge fin wire braced to it.

It was mounted with its exposed cylinders pointing forwards for cooling and had gearing that turned the output through 90° to drive a two-blade propeller.

From each end of the axle a strut ran to the underside of the forward fuselage, acting together with a vertical telescopic, rubber damped shock absorber.

[3][5] A side-by-side version was also built and designated the Potez VIII R; it was a little heavier, with a wider fuselage and powered by a fully cowled 80 hp (60 kW) Le Rhone 9C engine.

[6][7] Reconstructed pre-World War II civil registers[8] suggest about fifteen powered Potez VIIIs were built.