Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) of Petrosia ficiformis were investigated for the first time. The VOCs from fresh and air-dried sponge were obtained by hydrodistillation and headspace-solid phase microextraction and they were analysed by coupled gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. Aliphatic compounds with octan-3-one (up to 24.02 %), oct-1-en-3-ol (up to 8.65 %) and heptadecane (up to 39.37 %) were the most abundant in the fresh sponge along with benzaldehyde (up to 18.59 %) and diisobutyl phthalate (up to 8.44 %). Higher percentage of N,N-dimethylmethanamine (up to 19.08 %) was found in dried sample headspace and the loss of octan-3-one and benzaldehyde and increase of benzyl alcohol (up to 18.90 %) were noted. The great difference among the fresh and dried sponge VOCs obtained by hydrodistillation was noticed for fatty acids and derivatives abundance and 1H-indole increased (up to 6.00 %) in the dried sponge. Both methods enabled obtaining more complete VOCs profile and drying significantly changed their composition.