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Suwalki was first mentioned in 1688. Its creation and development - first as a village, and later as a city - were inseparably connected with the settlement and colonization activity of the Camaldolese Order, which in 1667, by the assignment of King Jan Kazimierz, became the owner of vast estates covering a large area of today's Suwalki.

The city was created from a settlement founded in the 17th century by the Camaldolese Order of the nearby monastery in Wigry, as one of the settlements in the depopulated areas of former Jaćwieża. On March 3, 1720, city rights were confirmed by August II.

1795 as a result of the Third Partition of Poland, the city ​​was incorporated into the Kingdom of Prussia. In 1807 Suwałki was included in the Duchy of Warsaw. In 1866 Suwałki became the capital of the Suwałki Governorate.

In 1939 the Red Army entered the city and the following year Suwałki was incorporated into the German Reich under the new name Sudauen. The Nazis carried out mass arrests of the local intelligentsia. In 1941 they founded Stalag IF Sudauen in which tens of thousands of prisoners of war were killed.

The occupation of Suwałki ended with heavy fighting and, on October 23, 1944, the troops of the 3rd Belarussian Front entered the city.

During the Communist period, the city's development progressed slowly, and a major about-face took place only in 1975, with the entry into force of the new administrative division of the country and the promotion of Suwałki to the rank of province capital.

In 1999 as a result of administrative reform, Suwałki lost its status as a voivodship city, becoming a poviat city in the Podlasie Voivodship.