Abstract The effects of hydrostatic pressure on the correlated e–h transition energies in single GaAs–Ga 1– x Al x As quantum wells are calculated via a variational procedure, in the framework of the effective‐mass and non‐degenerate parabolic‐band approximations. The valence‐band anisotropy is included in our theoretical model by using different hole masses in different spatial directions. Both heavy‐ and light‐hole exciton energies are obtained, and correlated e–h transition energies are found in good agreement with available experimental measurements. (© 2006 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)