What is the difference between cajun seasoning and creole seasoning?

Cajun seasoning vs Creole seasoning

The short answer

Herbs. That is the short answer, and the longer one is that these come from two different communities who happened to share a state: Creole cooking developed in New Orleans with a port and imported ingredients, Cajun in the rural south-west from what was local. Creole carries oregano and thyme in a quantity Cajun does not; Cajun leans harder on pepper. Swapping them is unremarkable in most dishes and noticeable in a gumbo.

Side by side

Cajun seasoning and Creole seasoning compared side by side
	Cajun seasoning	Creole seasoning
Defining ingredients	paprika, cayenne, Garlic powder, Onion powder, black pepper, oregano, thyme	paprika, Dried oregano, Dried thyme, black pepper, white pepper, cayenne, Salt
Origin	Louisiana, from the rural Acadian (Cajun) cooking tradition. The packaged seasoning is a twentieth-century commercial development built on that tradition rather than a historical artefact of it.	New Orleans and the surrounding parishes. Creole cooking developed in the city among people of French, Spanish, African, Caribbean and Native American descent, with access to a port and to imported ingredients; Cajun cooking developed in rural south-west Louisiana among Acadians expelled from Canada, working from what was local. The seasonings reflect that difference rather than a disagreement about taste.
Cuisines	american, cajun	cajun, american
Heat	Medium to hot, depending almost entirely on the cayenne proportion.	Mild to moderate, and adjustable. Household versions are usually gentler than the reputation of Louisiana cooking suggests; commercial blends vary widely.
Flavour	Savoury and pepper-driven, with sweet red-pepper body from the paprika, a herbal backbone and a clean building heat. Designed to form a crust under high heat, which is the basis of blackening.	Paprika-led and savoury, with the dried herbs clearly present rather than in the background, and a warmth that builds from three different peppers. Against Cajun seasoning it reads greener and less purely hot; against Italian seasoning, which shares the herbs, it reads far warmer because of the paprika and cayenne.
Aroma	Not established	Not established

Can you swap them?

Substitution is directional: the answer is often different in each direction, and both are recorded.

Cajun seasoning with Oregano and Thyme

Good match

Use: ~1× by volume — Equal volume with a pinch each of dried oregano and thyme, which is most of the difference.

The two are near neighbours and the gap is herbs. Cajun seasoning leans harder on pepper and carries fewer of them, so adding oregano and thyme closes most of the distance. The result is slightly hotter than a household Creole blend, which matters less than it sounds because both are adjusted to taste in the pan anyway.

How the replacement compares on each sensory axis
Flavour	Aroma	Colour	Heat
close	close	very close	more

Works for

Gumbo, jambalaya, étouffée, red beans and rice
Chicken, prawns and fish

Does not work for

Anyone counting on the salt content, since commercial blends differ enormously
A dish where the herb character is the identifying note and no herbs are to hand

Cuisine: Stays in Louisiana and moves from the city to the rural parishes. Both traditions are real and neither is a simplified version of the other.

Established culinary practice

Which should you buy?

Cajun seasoning

The main axis of variation is heat and salt. Commercial blends are usually heavily salted, so a recipe written for a home blend will over-salt a dish if a packet is used at the same rate. The Cajun and Creole distinction is real: Creole seasoning generally carries more dried herbs and sometimes paprika-forward sweetness, while Cajun is more pepper-driven. Outside Louisiana the two names are used almost interchangeably, which is worth noting rather than reproducing.

Creole seasoning

There is no canonical Creole seasoning, and the widely sold branded versions differ from one another as much as from any household recipe. What varies is the herb proportion, the salt content, whether garlic and onion powder are included, and how hot it is made. What does not vary is that paprika leads and herbs are present in a quantity a Cajun blend would not use. Anyone comparing two jars should read the order of the ingredient list before assuming they are interchangeable: several commercial Creole seasonings are salt first by weight, which changes how much of the jar is seasoning and how much is salt.

Full detail on cajun seasoning and creole seasoning, including evidence grades and sources for every claim above.