In order to accurately determine the moisture content in tobacco, a method with gas chromatography was developed. Four factors, including extraction means, extraction solvent, extraction time and solvent volume, were optimized. The results showed that: 1) The better results were achieved when the sample was extracted with 20 mL methanol for 2 hours under shaking. 2) The variation coefficient of 5 parallel tests was 0.83 % with the recoveries ranged from 92.05 % to 105.40 %. This method eliminates the errors caused by volatile components in tobacco in the determination of moisture content, and offered more accurate and reliable results.