Archosauria was named by Cope (1869) ["great order"]. It is extant. It was considered monophyletic by Thies et al. (1997) and Nesbitt (2011) and Ezcurra (2016).

It was reranked as the subclass Archosauria by Haughton and Brink (1954), Parsch (1963), Bakker and Galton (1974), Thulborn (1975), Thurmond and Jones (1981) and Thies et al. (1997); it was reranked as the superorder Archosauria by Kuhn (1966); it was reranked as the infraclass Archosauria by Olson (1966) and Olshevsky (1992); it was reranked as the class Archosauria by Bakker (1986); it was reranked as the unranked clade Archosauria by Gardiner (1982), Gauthier et al. (1989), Parrish (1993), Long and Murry (1995), Senter (2004), Nesbitt (2011), Nesbitt et al. (2014) and Ezcurra (2016).

It was assigned to Diapsida by Olson (1947) and Kuhn (1966); to Amniota by Bakker and Galton (1974); to Thecodontia by Gardiner (1982); to Diapsida by Bakker (1986); to Diapsida by Roxo (1937), Olson (1966) and Olshevsky (1992); to Reptilia by Cope (1870), Lydekker (1888), Haughton and Brink (1954), Parsch (1963), Thulborn (1975), Thurmond and Jones (1981) and Thies et al. (1997); to Archosauromorpha by Benton (1985), Carroll (1988), Benton (1990) and Peng et al. (2001); to Crurotarsi by Nesbitt (2011); to Archosauriformes by Gauthier et al. (1989), Sereno (1991), Parrish (1993), Long and Murry (1995), Senter (2004) and Nesbitt et al. (2014); and to Eucrocopoda by Ezcurra (2016).