Abstract: To study the distribution of surrounding rock plastic zone in roadway under unequal stress in two directions, the south rail lane in 500 m underground 81 mining area of Xutuan Coal Mine is taken as the engineering background. The influencing factors on roadway surrounding plastic zone under unequal stress in two directions, as well as their influencing laws are studied by using the numerical simulation software Abaqus and adopting control variable method. The results show that the plastic zone is strongly affected by ground pressure, lateral pressure coefficient and surrounding rock lithology. The size of plastic zone is somewhat affected by the roadway radius and support, but it is not obvious. And the roadway radius and support have almost no effect on the shape of plastic zone. According to the study, improving the surrounding rock lithology and reducing the principal stress difference are two effective means to control the plastic deformation of roadway surrounding rock.