Resolution of three molecular typing methods of sequence based typing (SBT), pulsed field gel electrophoresis (PFGE), amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) in Legionella pneumophila (Lp) typing study were compared to research the applicability of SBT for Lp typing. 32 Lp strains collected and isolated from cooling tower water in 6 hospitals of Shijiazhuang. Among them 24 strains with serotype 1 (Lp1) were carried out their SBT typing study, and compared with PFGE and AFLP typing results. 24 Lp1 strains were classified into 4 ST types with resolution ratio at 0.239 1. While using PFGE method 32 strains were classified into 15 PFGE types with resolution ratio at 0.925 4. And those with AFLP method 32 strains were classified into 23 AFLP types with resolution ratio at 0.973 7. Comparing SBT database in EWGU website, ST1021 type and ST345 type were the local unique type categories and belonged to the same clone; ST1 was the dominant type and has been prevailed in China for long period of time; by virtue of the deletion of neuA those Lp strains along with 23 Lp strains that had not been typed were not belonged to different clones. The typing resolution of SBT methods was inferior to PFGE and AFLP methods. However, SBT typing method can get more information about the strain genetic evolution and epidemiology distribution through global comparative database. It is superior to PFGE and AFLP in the study on aspects of molecular epidemiology and evolution.