The average length of the Indian cobra is 1.4-1.6 meters, and the longest known record is a male snake about 2.25 meters long.

The scales of the Indian cobra are arranged obliquely and in various colors. Indian cobras are hazel, brown, olive green, dark gray green, or all black, and these colors can be mixed with each other or striped. Its throat is usually pinkish-yellow. However, we also find some mutant albino individuals with pinkish-yellow body and red eyes.

The Indian cobra has neither outer ears nor tympanic membranes, ear holes, and Eustachian tubes. But it has a very developed vision. Unlike most vertebrates, which rely on the eye's convex lens to focus, the Indian cobra's lens is directly attached to its retina.