These large fish are found worldwide in tropical and subtropical regions in coastal marine waters, estuaries, and freshwater lakes and rivers.

[3] Sawfish have declined drastically and all species are considered critically endangered today.

[9] Two additional species, P. microdon and P. perotteti, have historically been recognized, but in 2013 it was shown that they are conspecific with P. pristis as morphological and genetic differences are lacking,[9] leading recent authorities to treat them as synonyms.

[5][7][8][10][11][12] Anoxypristis cuspidata was formerly included in Pristis, but it has a number of distinctive features (for example, no teeth on the basal quarter of the saw) and recent authorities place it in its own genus.

[1][14][15] Fossil Pristis range from the Late Paleocene to the Quaternary period.