The invention relates to a grey cosine distribution optical target simulation device for MTF (modulation transfer function) detection and belongs to the technical field of image quality assessment of an optical system. The device comprises a lighting source, a narrow band filter, a flat field microobjective, a pinhole reticle, a first optical alignment system, a polarization beam splitter, a variable optical density board, a first standard plane mirror, a second standard plane mirror, a beam splitter, a calibration camera, a coupling objective, a second optical alignment system, a high-precision displacement adjustment table and a controller. The grey cosine distribution optical target simulation device for modulation transfer function detection can accurately simulate a grey cosine distribution target with the space frequency and modulation degree matched with those of a to-be-detected optical system, the grey cosine distribution target is input for MTF detection of the to-be-detected optical system, which accords with the original definition of MTF, besides, MTF of the to-be-detected optical system can be directly measured, follow-up data processing is not required, and accordingly, the precision and the efficiency of MTF detection are improved.