The species was first described in the scientific literature as "le bolet chicotin" ("Boletus felleus") by French mycologist Pierre Bulliard in 1788. As the large genus "Boletus" was carved up into smaller genera, Petter Karsten transferred it in 1881 to "Tylopilus", a genus diagnosed by its pink spores and adnate tubes. "T. felleus" is the type species of "Tylopilus", and the only member of the genus found in Europe. Synonyms include "Boletus alutarius", described by Elias Magnus Fries in 1815 and later by Friedrich Wilhelm Gottlieb Rostkovius in 1844, and Paul Christoph Hennings's subsequent transfer of Fries's taxon into "Tylopilus", "T. alutarius". Lucien Quélet placed the taxon in "Dictyopus" in 1886 and then "Rhodoporus" in 1888, but neither of these genera are recognised today, the former having been merged into "Boletus" and the latter into "Tylopilus". Genetic analysis published in 2013 shows that "T. felleus" and many (but not all) other members of "Tylopilus" form a "Tylopilus" clade within a larger group informally called anaxoboletus in the Boletineae. Other clades in the group include the porcini and "Strobilomyces" clades, as well as three other groups composed of members of various genera including "Xerocomus", "Xerocomellus" and "Boletus badius" and relatives.