Abstract: Apricots are abundant in Xinjiang region, and contain a variety of bioactive components such as polyphenols. Investigation on the extraction process of dried apricot polyphenols can lay a foundation for further exploiting apricot resources to develop healthy products. In this paper, Saimaiti dried apricots of Xinjiang were used as raw materials, and the water immersion was employed for polyphenols extraction. The extraction process was optimized by response surface experiment, and the in vitro antioxidant activity of polyphenols was investigated. The results showed that the optimal extraction process was determined as follows: ethanol solution volume fraction of 70%, liquid-solid ratio of 21∶1（mL/g）, extraction time of 2.6 h, extraction temperature of 51 ℃. Under these conditions, the amount of polyphenols extracted from dried apricot was（4.118 9±0.020 1） mg/g. The main order of influencing factors on the contents of apricot polyphenols was identified as follows: liquid-solid ratio＞ethanol volume fraction＞extraction temperature＞extraction time. The antioxidant test results showed that dried apricot polyphenols presented strong abilities to scavenge DPPH radicals and hydroxyl radicals, and showed certain capacities to scavenge ABTS cation radicals and superoxide anions, indicating that dried apricot polyphenols had a certain antioxidant activity in vitro.