In this paper we present validation results of the total ozone column data products of the Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) on board the NASA EOS‐AURA satellite through comparisons with ground‐based observations by Dobson and Brewer spectrophotometer instruments. Quality‐controlled and archived total ozone column data from these ground‐based instruments located at stations worldwide have been used to validate more than 2 a of total ozone column observations from OMI. There are two operationally available satellite total ozone column data products, based on the OMI‐TOMS and the OMI‐DOAS retrieval algorithms, respectively. Validation with ground‐based data focused on global comparisons and seasonal dependence and the possible dependence on latitude and solar zenith angle. Our results show a globally averaged agreement of better than 1% for OMI‐TOMS data and better than 2% for OMI‐DOAS data with the ground‐based observations. The OMI‐TOMS data product is shown to be of high overall quality with no significant dependence on solar zenith angle or latitude. The OMI‐DOAS data product shows no significant dependence on latitude except for the high latitudes of the Southern Hemisphere where it systematically overestimates the total ozone value. In addition a significant dependence on solar zenith angle is found between OMI‐DOAS and ground‐based data. Comparisons of satellite and ground‐based data tend to show a marginal seasonal dependence even though it remains unclear whether this dependence originates from the ground‐based or spaceborne observations.