Objective The current status of achievement motive levels and autonomous learning ability of nursing students was studied and compared in order to put forward suggestions to improve the achievement motive levels accordingly.Methods 119 nursing students were investigated about their achievement motive levels and autonomous learning ability by questionnaires.Then these students were divided into three groups according to their achievement motive scores and the autonomous learning ability was compared.Results The scores of Success-oriented motive of nursing students were significantly higher than that of failure-threatened motive.The total score of autonomous learning ability was(88.653+9.373)and the autonomous learning ability among these three groups was statistically different(P＜0.01).Conclusion The achievement motive greatly influenced the autonomous learning ability of nursing students.Measures should be adopted to improve the achievement motives so as to enhance their autonomous learning ability.