The relativistic corrections to the ponderomotive force for a general transverse plane wave of arbitrary polarization lead to an approximately twenty percent reduction in the single particle ponderomotive force for 10.6 &mgr;m CO2light at 1016W/cm2. The recent nonrelativistic derivation of laser‐induced plasma profiles is extended to the relativistic regime by including the relativistic corrections to the ponderomotive force in the fluid equations. Specifically, analytic results are obtained which facilitate relating the number densities and flow velocities to the electric field strength at the sonic point; in addition, these relations allow the complete self‐consistent steady state structure of the profile to be determined numerically. Several detailed comparisons of nonrelativistic and relativistic results are discussed.