The invention relates to an alternating current (AC) stepped controllable single-phase/three-phase shunt reactor, which comprises a main reactor, a graded reactor, a detecting unit and a central control unit, wherein the main reactor is in a single-phase or three-phase form; a primary coil of the main reactor directly accesses a power network, and a secondary coil of the main reactor is connected in parallel with one or more graded reactors, and each graded reactor has a control part for controlling the connection and disconnection of the reactor respectively; the input end of the detecting unit is connected with related parameter information of the power network and the main reactor, and the output end of the detecting unit is connected with the central control unit; the control end of the central control unit is connected with the control part of each graded reactor. In the invention, the graded reactor is designed to be connected in parallel with the secondary coil of the main reactor, so that the regulating capacity range can be in various combinations, the regulation is convenient, and the response speed is fast. The reactor provided by the invention has all the functions and properties of a common reactor, more harmonic waves are isolated, and the influence on the power network is reduced; the short-circuit impedance of the main reactor can be designed to be less than 100%.