Objective: To analyze the water-soluble functional substance in different kinds of soybean products. Methods, Amino acid analyzer, HPLC and UV spectrophotometer were used to detect the content of the active factors, such as peptide, amino acid, isoflavones, saponin and oligosaccharide etc, in 8 kinds of frequently used soybean products. Results: different soybean products contained different contents of functional substances. Modern soybean products including soy protein powder and soybean peptide powder had significant higher content of water soluble protein, small peptide and amino acid. The soybean milk has the highest content of isoflavones, while the soybean peptide powder had more aglycones isoflavone. When the traditional soybean foods were concerned, more soy saponin were found in tofu and tofu skin, while the fermented soybean food had higher content of water soluble protein and small peptide. Moreover, the soybean peptide powder and fermented soybean curd demonstrated more advantages in the content of oligosaccharide. Conclusion: modern soybean products mainly focus on the soybean functionality, as a result it had the highest content of all kinds of active substances. Fermentation can give more active substances in the traditional soybean products. © 2016, Chinese Institute of Food Science and Technology. All right reserved.