Abstract A series of 20 experiments on the powder production of the ferroelectric Bi4Ti3O12 (BIT) has been performed through self-propagating high-temperature synthesis (SHS), exploring urea (CO(NH2)2) and the polysaccharide ((C6H10O5)n) as fuels. Different experimental conditions such as annealing temperatures, stoichiometric ratios and the use of TiO2 and TiCl2 as titanium sources were investigated. The percentage of BIT crystalline phase present in each sample prepared was calculated from X-ray diffraction. The platelike morphology of the powders produced by SHS was the same as that observed in the reference sample synthesized by solid-state reaction. Some of the proposed routes were shown to be very advantageous, providing BIT with particle sizes smaller than 1 μm in few minutes of reaction plus 30 min of annealing, while the solid-state route takes approximately 150 h to achieve similar results.