Abstract: 18K gold may contain many impurity elements, such as copper and lead. However, the common spectrum of lead element is easily interfered by copper, iron and gold in the spectral analysis. A method based on the inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES) for the determination of the content of lead in 18K gold was been established. The results showed that the linear relationship of lead in the concentration range of standard curve was good at 283.306 nm. The detection limit was 0.005 6 μg/mL, the recovery rate was 92.9%~102.0%, and the relative standard deviation was less than 1%, receptivity. The results of spectral line test were accurate and sensitive, 283.306 nm line is suitable for the determination of lead in 18K gold.