Erza is a young woman who has long scarlet hair and brown eyes. Her right eye is actually artificial; it was made by Porlyusica. She has a slender figure that Lucy Heartfilia described as amazing, and like most females in the series, has large breasts. She wears a custom-made armor by Heart Kreuz smiths, a blue skirt, and black boots. Her Fairy Tail stamp is blue and located on the middle of her left upper arm. Erza specializes in Requip Magic, and uses it to Requip not only armor, but different outfits as well. Her favorite outfit is her bunny suit, because as she quoted, "Those ears are cute".
Erza is a very impatient person, disliking people who don't answer her questions quickly enough. Erza is a very strict person, often criticizing the bad behavior and habits of the other guild members, causing most of them to apologize, fearing that they might invoke her wrath. This, coupled with her own tragic childhood, caused many of her guildmates to avoid her due to her social awkwardness....

However, she has a great sense of justice and pride in being a member of Fairy Tail. Despite being a very strict person, she seems to have a clumsy side to her, as seen when she fell into a pit hole and carried on as if nothing had happened.

Natsu describes her as "strong, mean and scary"; Lucy says that she's "cool and beautiful, warm and full of passion". Jellal, when he had lost his memories, remembering nothing but the name "Erza", said her name was "full of kindness, brightness and warmth". Makarov called Erza the "Female Knight who doesn't know how to hold back".

Erza described herself as someone who was always crying, since she wasn't able to protect those dear to her. Several examples are when Rob tried to shield her from destruction, and when Jellal was captured because he saved her and was brainwashed by "Zeref". Also, Erza has stated that she feels uncomfortable and insecure when not wearing armor. However, when Erza encountered Ikaruga, she left her fear behind and battled Ikaruga without armor.