When perfect, externally pressurized complete circular toroidal shells buckle, the minimum buckling pressure pcr usually occurs in the axisymmetric n = 0 mode, with pcr for n = 2 being only slightly larger. In the present paper, the effects of axisymmetric initial geometric imperfections on reducing pcr for the perfect shell are investigated. Various types of imperfection are studied, i.e. localized flat spots, smooth dimples, sinusoids and buckling mode shapes. The principal geometry investigated was R/b = 10, b/t = 100, although other geometries were also considered. The maximum decrease in buckling resistance, Δ pcr, was found to be about 16 per cent at δ 0/t = 1 and it occurred with smooth dimples at the north (φ = 180°) and south (φ=0°) poles. This value of Δ pcr is not large. Circular toroidal shells thus do not appear to be very sensitive to axisymmetric initial geometric imperfections. The reductions in the buckling pressure of the above shell, arising because of initial imperfections having the shape of the n = 0 and the n = 2 buckling modes, were 12 and 9 per cent respectively for wo/t = 1. These decreases in the buckling resistance are smaller than that for the ‘two smooth dimple’ case mentioned above.