Ateles pansicus occurs north of the Rio Amazon, east of the Rios Negro and Branco. In Guyana, it is known from the far south and from the east of the River Essequibo (Sussmann and Phillips-Conroy 1995), and east from there through Suriname and French Guiana, excluding the lowland coastal plains, but throughout adequate habitat and into the states of Amapá, Pará (north of the Rio Amazonas), and Amazonas, Brazil. Its occurrence in Venezuela and west of the Essequibo, as proposed by Linares (1998), is doubtful.