Abstract: To explore the acoustic emission difference of soft coal and hard coal is important for the accurate prediction of geological hazards. The stress-strain and acoustic emission characteristics of coal samples collected from different mining areas in loading process were tested and analyzed by using RMT-150B rock mechanics test system and CDAE-1 all-digital acoustic emission detection and analysis system, and its kurtosis features were evaluated. The result shows that the continuous acoustic emission generated in soft coal is earlier than that in hard coal, with a smaller acoustic emission value and an unconspicuous mutational acoustic emission peak. Besides, the kurtosis value of soft coal is larger than that of hard coal on the whole. And the characteristic that acoustic emission kurtosis has a relatively stable period before peak failure not only can be used as a precursory of coal destruction, but also can provide guidance for the monitoring and prediction of geological hazard.