The invention discloses a dehydrogenation catalyst and a preparation method and application thereof. The dehydrogenation catalyst uses ammonia processed alumina as a carrier, chrome as an active component, and one or a plurality of potassium, manganese, cobalt, iron, nickel, copper and zinc as an additive, the additive is loaded onto the carrier by a co-impregnation method, and taking oxide weight content in the final catalyst as a reference, the catalyst comprises 2%-6% of chromium oxide, and 0.1-5% of the additive. The preparation method of the hydrocarbon dehydrogenation catalyst comprises the following processes: using ammonia to preprocess an alumina carrier, using the co-impregnation method to load one or a plurality of potassium, manganese, cobalt, iron, nickel, copper and zinc, and loading the active component chrome. The dehydrogenation catalyst can be used in dehydrogenation of propane for preparation of propylene. The low carbon alkane dehydrogenation catalyst prepared by the preparation method has the advantages of low active component chromium oxide content, good propylene selectivity, high activity and the like.