Batch experiments were conducted to study thermal desorption of nitrobenzene in yellow brown soil (Nanjing) and Red soil (Jiangxi). The effects of thermal desorption temperature, time, soil moisture, initial concentration and soil type on thermal desorption efficiency of nitrobenzene were studied. The results showed that, when soil moisture was 2%, initial concentration was 165.54 mg/kg, the thermal desorption temperature and time were 300℃ and 30 min, the thermal desorption efficiency of nitrobenzene reached 85.88%, and the residual concentration of nitrobenzene in treated soil was 23.37 mg/kg, which was far less than B-level limit (100 mg/kg) of Standard of Soil Quality Assessment for Exhibition Sites (HJ 350-2007). Besides, both higher and lower soil moistures were not in favor of nitrobenzene desorption from the contaminated soil. When the soil moisture was 15%, a maximal thermal desorption efficiency of nitrobenzene reached. The initial concentration of nitrobenzene in soil had a great effect on thermal desorption efficiency. With an increase of initial concentration, there was a trend that thermal desorption efficiency of nitrobenzene increased. At the same time, the results also showed that soil type hardly affected on thermal desorption efficiency of nitrobenzene, so the effect of soil type could be neglected in practical applications. The results provide some scientific bases for the remediation of soil contaminated by nitrobenzene using thermal desorption method.