The ninth season of the American animated television series SpongeBob SquarePants, created by animator and former marine biologist Stephen Hillenburg, originally aired on Nickelodeon in the United States from July 21, 2012, to February 20, 2017, and contained 26 half-hour episodes. The series chronicles the exploits and adventures of the title character and his various friends in the fictional underwater city of Bikini Bottom. The season was executive produced by series creator Hillenburg and writer Paul Tibbitt, the latter of whom also acted as the showrunner for the first 11 episodes of the season. Starting with "Lost in Bikini Bottom", Marc Ceccarelli and Vincent Waller became the supervising producers and showrunners and served in that position for the rest of the season.

The eighth season of the American animated television series SpongeBob SquarePants, created by former marine biologist and animator Stephen Hillenburg, originally aired on Nickelodeon in the United States from March 26, 2011, to December 6, 2012, and contained 26 half-hour episodes, with a miniseries titled SpongeBob's Runaway Roadtrip. The series chronicles the exploits and adventures of the title character and his various friends in the fictional underwater city of Bikini Bottom. The season was executive produced by series creator Hillenburg and writer Paul Tibbitt, who also acted as the showrunner. In 2011, SpongeBob's Runaway Roadtrip, an anthology series consisting of five episodes from the season, was launched.