Nonlinear optical properties of multicomponent tellurite glasses doped with Er3+ ions were investigated by open aperture Z-scan measurements. Compositional and linear optical properties of the glasses were examined by the energy dispersive X-ray spectrum and UV-vis-NIR absorption spectrum analysis respectively. The mechanism behind the optical nonlinearity and optical limiting efficiency was successfully explained by evaluating the physical properties such as density, refractive index and polarizability of the glasses. The nonlinear properties critically depend on the polarizability, which is found to increase with the addition of Er3+ ions by the creation of non-bridging oxygen ions. By the systematic addition of Er3+ ions, we have dictated the physical properties and thus tuned the optical limiting efficiency of the glasses. This makes the Er3+-doped multicomponent tellurite glasses flexible tunable optical limiters for potential device applications.