Objective To explore the diagnostic value of CT and MRI in the clinical staging of bladder cancer. Methods 59 cases of patients with bladder cancer confirmed by clinical pathology in our hospital from June 2012 to June 2014 were selected as the research object. All underwent CT and MRI diagnosis. The accuracy of CT and MRI in the diagnosis of bladder cancer staging and the imaging findings were compared. Results With clinical pathology as the golden standard, the diagnostic accuracy and specificity of MRI (93.22%, 94.29%) were significantly higher those of CT (69.49%, 65.71%) (P＜0.05). CT showed that the lesions were cauliflower-like, papillary and dune-like, which showed equal or slightly high density, with partially visible calcification; The enhanced scan showed different degrees of enhancement and the delayed scan was mainly filling-defect. MRI showed intraluminal type equal signal on T1 and high signal on T2. For infiltrating type and exogastric type, the signal area in local bladder wall was with poor continuity on T2. The enhancement of 17 cases showed different degrees of enhancement. Conclusion The accuracy of MRI in diagnosis of bladder cancer staging is high, which is of guiding significance for the establishment of clinical surgical treatment