Sepia orbignyana is a fairly small cuttlefish, growing up to 12 cm in total length.

The suckers on the hectocotylus are arranged in two dorsal and two ventral series each of which are laterally displaced to create a gap between them.

In the Mediterranean spawning probably occurs continuously and adults of both sexes are present in similar numbers throughout the year, although breeding activity is thought to peak in the warmer months.

Females grow faster than males and reach larger sizes In the Mediterranean males attain maturity at around 35mm in mantle length and at age 6–7 months while for females maturity is reached at a mantle length of 65mm and at the age of nine to ten months.

[4] Sepia orbignyana sometimes caught in high numbers as bycatch in trawls in parts of the Mediterranean Sea and in west African fisheries.

In the south-western Adriatic multi-species trawl fishery it, together with S. elegans, is taken as bycatch and in the 2000s the catch greatly reduced, the reduction being blamed on overfishing.

[6] being the editor of the Annales des Sciences Naturelles at the time André Étienne d'Audebert de Férussac published his description of the species, in 1826, from a type specimen collected at La Rochelle.