The species grows terrestrially in a number of habitats, including lowland heath forest, exposed sites such as cliff faces and landslides, lower montane forest among stunted vegetation, and disturbed or recovering secondary vegetation (such as previously logged dipterocarp forest). It also often colonises the sides of roads running through the forest. The known distribution of this species appears to roughly correlate with ultramafic substrate occurrence. "Nepenthes bellii" is often sympatric with "N. merrilliana" and "N. mindanaoensis". Although "N. bellii" is known to form natural hybrids with both of these species, such crosses appear to be rare. Field observations of these three species suggest that they flower at different times of the year.