Objective To evaluate the value of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in the diagnosis of T stage and evaluation of the effects of surgical resection of esophageal carcinoma. Methods Forty-eight patients with esophageal cancer treated in our hospital between June 2013 and February 2015 were selected as the study subjects. All patients underwent CT and MRI examination, and the MRI features of esophageal cancerat different T stages were observed. TN staging was performed before surgery. With the postoperative pathological results as the standard, the sensitivity, specificity and accuracy in the diagnosis of T stage of esophageal cancer and the accuracy in the diagnosis of local lymph node metastases were compared between MRI and CT. Results MRI showed showed high signal on MR-DWI. In T1-2phase, the linear low to medium signal of muscle layersurrounding lesions was complete while in T3 phase, it was interrupted or disappeared, and in T4phase, fat spaces between lesions and adjacent structures disappeared with adjacent structures invasion. The specificity and accuracy of MRI in the diagnosis of esophageal cancer at T1-2 stage (90.00%, 79.17%) were higher than those of CT (60.0%, 58.33%) (P<0.05). There were no significant differences in the sensitivity, specificity and accuracy between MRI and CT in the diagnosis of T3-4 stage (P>0.05). There was no significant difference in the diagnostic efficacy between MRI and CT in N staging of esophageal cancer (P>0.05). Conclusion MRI is of high value in preoperative staging and evaluation of esophageal cancer, especially for T1 and T2. It is worth to be popularized and applied in clinical practice.