The genus Raoultella is composed of Gram-negative, oxidase-negative, aerobic, nonmotile, capsulated, facultatively anaerobic rods in the family Enterobacteriaceae. It is named after the French bacteriologist Didier Raoult. The existence of this genus renders the genus Klebsiella paraphyletic, and it has been repeatedly proposed to consider Raoultella a junior synonym of Klebsiella.

Enterobacteriaceae is a large family of Gram-negative bacteria. It includes over 30 genera and more than 100 species. Its classification above the level of family is still a subject of debate, but one classification places it in the order Enterobacterales of the class Gammaproteobacteria in the phylum Pseudomonadota. In 2016, the description and members of this family were emended based on comparative genomic analyses by Adeolu et al.