The invention discloses a suspension bed heavy oil hydrogenation process start-up method, which comprises the following steps: a reactor is firstly pre-heated by hot gas after a device is qualified in gas seal, after the reactor is pre-heated to 200-360 DEG C, raw oil containing a dispersive type catalyst and pre-heated to the same temperature and hydrogen are mixed and sent into a suspension bed reactor, the temperature of the reactor is further raised, and the material flow after reaction is fully cycled; and after the temperature of the reactor is raised to the reaction temperature, cycling operation is stopped, and device start-up is ended. In the method disclosed by the invention, light distillate and frequent switching operation used in the conventional heavy oil hydrogenation device are omitted, the start-up process is simplified, and the operation cost is reduced; and because the suspension bed hydrogenation start-up method is closely combined with the characteristics of suspension bed hydrogenation technology, the advantages of the technology are fully exerted, and the start-up method disclosed by the invention has wide adaptability.