Abstract: Shale gas exploration and development has achieved remarkable results in China.By the end of 2015, the cumulative production of shale gas is more than 6 billion cubic meters, and China becomes the third-largest producer of shale gas in the world.At the same time, the cost of shale gas exploration in China is too high to reduce the social and economic benefits of China’s shale gas exploration and development.Based on the accounting theory of shale gas exploration, this paper defines the concept of China’s shale gas exploration input cost, and sort out into accounting scope and composition, and discusses the unit cost of the different technical means including regional geological survey, seismic acquisition and processing and drilling.This paper discusses the reasons of high cost by comparing the exploration cost of China’s shale gas with American shale gas, China’s oil and gas.As policy and technology cause a high cost of China’s shale gas exploration cost, it is suggested that the government should introduce the standard specification of shale gas exploration cost, intensify the fiscal subsidy, and encourage the enterprises to invest in shale gas drilling technology.