Two series of porphyrin-thiophene chromophores were theoretically studied that exhibit large two-photon absorption cross-section in the visible region. The density functional theory (DFT) associated with ZINDO/SDCI methods has been used to calculate the molecular geometries, electronic structures, one-photon and two-photon absorption properties. The results show that the number of thiophene units affects the properties of one-photon absorption (OPA) and two-photon absorption (TPA). Porphyrin-thiophene chromophores featuring two or three thiophene units have wide TPA response ranges; they can be applied to many nonlinear optical areas, such as optical limiting. Intervening ethynyl unit is beneficial to extend the conjugated pathway, and increase the two-photon absorption cross-section. At the same time, the OPA and TPA wavelengths are bathochromically shifted. From viewpoint of the high transparency and large nonlinear optical response, porphyrin-thiophene chromophores will be promising TPA materials.