Changes in water storage of the lakes on the Tibetan Plateau are regarded as one of the most critical consequences of regional hydrological response to climate change. Different from the conventional hydrological approaches, in this study we investigated the storage change of the Qinghai Lake based on a conceptual lake storage model and the most recent (2001-2016)available satellite observation on lake area and water level. The water surface areas and water levels were derived from MODIS and LEGOS altimetry data respectively. The results show that, in the past decades, the area of the Qinghai Lake expanded at a rate of 11.6 km~2/a and the water level rose at the speed of 0.10 m/a. Based on the regression function between water level and lake area (R~2= 0.83), the net water budgets of the Qinghai Lake were estimated for the study period, and the result shows that water storage of the lake increased at the rate of about 4.5 billion m~3/a. The increase of water storage could be attributed to the increase of precipitation and decrease of evaporation in the region.