Objective To analyze the value of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in the diagnosis of cervical cancer and the judgment of surrounding invasion. Methods The preoperative MRI imaging data of 71 patients with cervical cancer admitted to our department of obstetrics and gynecology of our hospital in recent four years (from March 2014 to March 2018) were collected. All patients were confirmed by surgical pathology. The pathological results were taken as reference to compare the display effects of MRI towards the primary focus of cervical cancer and the extent of cancer involvement, and to analyze the estimated value of MRI in the diagnosis and invasion scope of patients with cervical cancer. Results MRI could not show stage Ia of cervical cancer, and the accuracies of MRI in evaluating stage Ib, stage II, stage III and stage IV of cervical cancer were 95.65% (66/69), 86.96% (60/69), 94.20% (65/69) and 100% (69/69) respectively, and the total accuracy was 85.92% (61/71), and there was no significant difference compared with the pathological results (P>0.05). The accuracies of MRI in the evaluation of tumor involving vagina, corpus and parametrium were 88.00%, 72.73% and 83.87% respectively, and the sensitivities were 88.89%, 82.35% and 91.67%, and the specificities were 80.00%, 40.00% and 57.14% respectively, and the positive predictive values were 97.56%, 82.35% and 88.00% respectively, and the negative predictive values were 44.44%, 40.00% and 66.67% respectively. Conclusion MRI examination has a relatively accurate judgment on the primary lesions and invasion scope of cervical cancer, and has high clinical value. And it can be used as an effective basis for preoperative diagnosis and postoperative assessment in clinic.