The invention provides spherical spinel lithium titanate and a preparation method and an application thereof. The preparation method includes the following steps: successively dissolving cetyl trimethyl ammonium bromide and lithium acetate in absolute ethyl alcohol to obtain a mixed solution; slowly dripping butyl titanate into the mixed solution under magnetic force stirring to form a yellow transparent solution, and continuing to stir to form yellow transparent gel; aging the yellow transparent gel in the air to form white gel, drying the obtained white gel in the air at 100 DEG C to form a dry gel precursor; grinding the dry gel precursor, pre-sintering the dry gel precursor at 700-900 DEG C for 4 hours, and carrying out heat treatment at temperature of 700-900 DEG C for 12 hours to obtain the spherical spinel lithium titanate, and the spherical spinel lithium titanate can be applied in lithium ion battery cathode materials. The spherical spinel lithium titanate provided by the invention has the characteristics of high tap density, good processing performance, good compatibility with electrolyte, excellent electrochemical performance and the like, and is wide in preparation raw material source, low in cost, short in period, low in temperature, simple and reliable in process and easy to achieve industrial production.