Objective: Chronic obstructive pulmonary (COPD) disease and asthma are both chronic lung diseases that limit airflow. The aim of this study was to compare IOS parameters of COPD and asthma patients with the same airflow limitation levels. Then evaluate the application value of IOS parameters to identify these two diseases. Methods: A total of 155 patients, including 35 normal subjects, 60 COPD patients, and 60 asthma patients, were enrolled in this study. The COPD and asthma patients were divided into three subgroups according to their airflow limitation stages. Each subgroup contained 20 subjects. We compared the IOS parameters of the normal subjects, COPD patients, and asthma patients. The IOS parameters in each paired COPD and asthma subgroup with the same airflow limitations were also compared. ROC and discriminant analysis were used to evaluate the power of IOS parameters to differentiate between asthma and COPD patients. Results: The IOS parameters including Z(5), R-5, R-20 and R5-20 of both the COPD and asthma patients were greater than those of the normal subjects. The above IOS parameters were greater in the asthma patients than the COPD patients, although the FEV1 values were not significantly different. When the IOS parameters were compared between the paired asthma and COPD subgroups, the results were the same as those for the whole COPD and asthma groups. ROC analysis showed Z(5), R-5, R-20 alone were valuable to distinguish with COPD and asthma with the same airflow limitation, whose AUCs were all greater than 0.7. Discriminant analysis showed that more than 75% patients can be correctly classified when combining spirometry and IOS parameters. Conclusion: The respiratory impedance indices of asthma patients are greater than those of COPD patients, although the airflow limitations of these patients are similar. These differences may provide help to distinguish with COPD and asthma patients.