This is a pretty common question, and personally I use them interchangeably, but bi is not really distinct from pan under most definitions that are internally consistent.

Even linguistically the roots of homo/heterosexuality are same/other. As such if you are bisexual you are both homo (same) and hetero (other). Whilst linguistics is not prescriptive, it still gives us insight into the historical understandings that have birth to an idea.

In the end, be bi, be pan, identify however you choose and never listen to someone telling you that your identity is not what you choose or feel. :)

Pretty simple:

Bi: Attracted to more than one gender.

Pan: Gender is not a factor in attraction (aka nominally attracted to all people of all genders).

So as an example, you can be bi but have a preference towards men or women, that would be not be congruent with being pan.

Pan seems to be gender blind, i.e. attracted to people with no regard to gender or attracted to all genders.

Bi has one definition in being attracted to both men and women, both sides of a binary.

Bi also has a less common usage to mean attracted to more than one gender which may or may not include both halves of the binary or the entire spectrum.

I like the bi flag more and that’s what we called it in high school.

Pan is so you can get people to Google it and keep asking this question in forums on the internet. 😜

The pan flag is kind of cool because it’s printer ink colors. But man there isn’t no pan lighting and if your going for a vibe, sometimes the pan flag just isn’t it.

Don’t know if you’ll find it interesting, but I really enjoyed verilyremovedie’s video on the subject https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=XiuHsugRgNQ

As far as I can remember, there’s a long history of bi people being attracted to people with both the same gender and different genders (homo/hetero) and supporting the trans movement historically. But then there was a period where pan became a popular term, and so people tried to make bisexual into something much more restricted than it had been, depite the fact that lots of bisexual people were saying “that’s not what it means for me”.

In modern times, just use whatever feels right to you! Everyone has their own associations and connotations for words. Some people hate queer as a slur, some people prefer it to more traditional terms like ‘gay’ (which actually feels a lot more like a slur to a certain generation). A small amount of folks complain about ‘bi’ being exclusionary but they’re the minority, and defintely not representative of bi culture, or the wider world. Equally, I’ve heard people say nonsense like “pansexuals are even attracted to animals or objects!” which is not accurate, but the main drawback for pan is that most people are more familiar with the ‘bi’ label than ‘pan’.

I personally prefer “bi” but I don’t care much either way, and might use “pan” if I was speaking to certain folks, or even just “I’m attracted to attractive people” if it’s someone who would be weired out by a label ending in “SEXual”.

generally they are synonomous terms, so choosing one or the other is purely personal preference.

I think pansexuals are attracted to people regardless of their gender. I identify as bi because I like masculine and feminine characteristics in people but I’m usually not attracted to androgynous presenting people, obviously if I really like a person I’ll be attracted to them anyway so it’s not all black and white but as a broad distinction I understand it like this

As far as i know, bi means liking male and female gender, while pan means every gender. Don’t know how correct i am tho…

The spelling is different.

Science says that the differences are,

1. Bisexual colors match my eyes better
2. Pansexual is better for hooking up with nonbinary, trans and polyamorous people
3. Bisexual is better for hooking up with binary and monosexual people
4. Pansexual colors look better when painting walls

Similarities,

1. Both describe sluts and removed
2. Both describe me depending on who I’m trying to sex

Scientifically speaking, pansexuals are cooler. It’s just science.