In order to rapidly and accurately determine the hydroquinone, catechol, resorcinol, phenol, 4-cresol, 2-cresol and 3-cresol in cigarette smoke, a method for simultaneously determining the seven volatile phenols in mainstream cigarette smoke with ultra performance liquid chromatography (UPLC) was developed. The total particulate matter collected on Cambridge filter pad was extracted with 1% acetic acid under ultrasonic for 20 min. The extract was filtrated and separated by a Waters Acquity UPLC BEH C₁₈ column with gradient elution using mobile phase of water containing 7.0 × 10^-3 mol/L β–cyclodextrin (β-CD). The recoveries of the seven phenols ranged from 90% to 102% with RSD of 1.15% to 5.79%, and the limit of detection was 0.04 to 0.35 μg/cig. The analysis time was 9 minutes. The method was suitable for the fast analysis of the seven volatile phenols in batches of mainstream cigarette smoke samples.