It has an apparent visual magnitude of +4.94,[2] which is bright enough to be viewed from dark suburban skies.

From parallax measurements made during the Gaia mission, the distance to this star can be estimated as roughly 680 light-years (210 parsecs) from Earth.

The brightness of this star is diminished by 0.24 in magnitude due to extinction caused by intervening gas and dust.

It is radiating about 851 times the luminosity of the Sun[5] from its photosphere at an effective temperature of 12,670 K.[6] The star is an estimated 217[7] million years old and is spinning with a high projected rotational velocity of ~74 km/s.

Consequently, the Chinese name for τ Andromedae itself is 天大將軍七 (Tiān Dà Jiāng Jūn qī, English: the Seventh Star of Heaven's Great General.).