An optical pickup includes a diffracting element having a plurality of regions for dividing the laser light emitted from the light-emitting element into a main beam and pairs of first, second, third, and fourth sub-beams. When the first to fourth sub-beams form first to fourth sub-spots, respectively, in that order along a radial direction on a recording surface of an arbitrary kind of disc-shaped recording medium which does not have the largest track pitch, n is a natural number, and the track pitch is Pa, the distance Da.sub.12 between the first and second sub-spots is approximately (2n.sub.12-1).times.Pa/2, the distance Da.sub.34 between the third and fourth sub-spots is approximately (2n.sub.34-1).times.Pa/2, the distance Da.sub.13 between the first and third sub-spots is approximately (2n.sub.13-1).times.Pa, and the distance Da.sub.24 between the second and fourth sub-spots is approximately (2n.sub.24-1).times.Pa.