We report on the scalability of generating terahertz radiation by optical rectification with the electro‐optic materials LiNbO3, LiTaO3, and dimethyl amino 4‐N‐methylstilbazolium tosylate (DAST). A Ti:sapphire laser system, producing 215 fs, 20 mJ pulses at 810 nm, was used for the experiment. Using LiNbO3and LiTaO3, the peak of the generated terahertz electric field was found to scale linearly with increasing optical fluence for fluences up to 60 mJ/cm2, while with DAST the peak field scaled sublinearly in this fluence range. ©1995 American Institute of Physics.