Objective To analyze the diagnostic value of MRI in parasellar cavernous hemangioma and meningioma. Methods The clinical data and MRI images of patients with parasellar cavernous hemangioma and meningioma treated in our hospital from April 2014 to December 2018 were retrospectively analyzed, and the MRI features of parasellar tumors of different natures were analyzed. Results In 20 cases of patients, 7 cases of parasellar cavernous hemangioma and 13 cases of parasellar meningioma were confirmed by surgical pathology. MRI scan could identify lesion location, size, shape and involved adjacent tissues and its structural relationship with the surrounding adjacent tissues. Compared with the white matter of the brain, MRI scan of the parasellar cavernous hemangioma showed equal signal or slightly low signal expression in T1WI with signal uniformity, and equal signal in DWI, and MRI enhanced scans showed significant enhancement mainly with slightly low signal expression. Parasellar meningioma lesions are close to the gray matter signal inT1WI (equal signal or high signal), and there was equal signal in T2WI and equal signal or slightly high signal in DWI, and MRI enhanced scan showed obvious enhanced expression, with typical "dural tail sign". Conclusion The signals expression of MRI and DWI scansare significantly different in the parasellar cavernous hemangioma and meningioma, and the "dural tail sign" can be seen in the parasellar meningioma, or it can be used as high-value basis to identify parasellar cavernous hemangioma and parasellar meningioma before operation, therefore it is worthy of further exploration.