An optical recording method to be used for recording at a high data transfer rate length-modulated marks on a recording medium by applying a recording laser beam locally to the recording medium. The recording laser beam has a writing power Pw.sub.i, is and a bias power Pb.sub.i. A record mark has a length of nT. With respect to at least two record marks, a pulse dividing number m is at least 2, and with respect to all record marks with m being at least 2, 2.5 is smaller than or equal to n/m, in a case where plural different record mark lengths are to be respectively formed by the same pulse dividing number m.