The proper tobacco planting pattern is very important to the sustainable development of tobacco agriculture. This study investigated soil nutrient properties, soil environmental quality and the economic benefits of 5 different tobacco planting patterns in tobacco fields of south Anhui Province by using the methods of questionnaire and sampling analysis. The results showed that the paddy-upland rotation and the variations between inputs and outputs of difference crops caused the differences in soil nutrients, the soil organic matter and alkali-hydrolyzable nitrogen in T2 (tobacco-maize→tobacco-maize) treatment were significantly lower than those in other treatments. The contents of total As, Cd, Cr and Hg in tillage soil were different in different tobacco planting patterns except for the total Pb, but they all meet the criterion of farmland environmental quality evaluation standards for edible agricultural products. The values of herbicide quinclorac content in T1 (tobacco-rice→tobacco-rice) and T4 (tobacco-rice→wheat-rice→tobacco) treatments were higher (0.05 mg/kg) among all planting patterns. Moreover, T1 treatment had the highest input among all the treatments. And the costs of renting land, fertilizing, baking and employee accounted for 79.3% of the total input. T1 and T2 both belonged to the "high input and high output" type, which would lead to an unsustainable status. T4 and T5 (tobacco-rice→rape-rice→tobacco) with higher ratios of output to input both belonged to the "low input and high output" type, which had higher tobacco sustainable production capacity. However, T3 (tobacco- fallow→tobacco-fallow) had the lowest multiple-crop index and easily led to ecological resources to be wasted. All in all, T4 was the optimal cropping pattern and should be adapted to a large area in South Anhui Province according to its economic benefit and soil ecological environmental suitability.