The invention relates to a preparation process of ethyl chromane-4-formate. The preparation process is characterized by comprising the following steps of: carrying out Friedel-Crafts acylation reaction and cyclization, addition reaction, hydrolysis reaction and esterification reaction, wherein, in the Friedel-Crafts acylation reaction and cyclization, the Friedel-Crafts acylation reaction is carried out in the presence of anhydrous aluminium trichloride by using a compound of formula 1 and 3-chloropropionylchloride as initial raw materials, then carrying out cyclization on an obtained product and 10% NaOH to obtain a compound of formula 2; in the addition reaction, the addition reaction is carried out on the compound of formula 2 and trimethylsilyl cyanide in the presence of zinc iodide to obtain a compound of formula 3; in the hydrolysis reaction, the compound of formula 3 is hydrolyzed under the conditions of stannous chloride dihydrate, concentrated hydrochloric acid and acetic acid to obtain a compound of formula 4; and in the esterification reaction, the compound of formula 4 is esterified in the presence of concentrated sulfuric acid to obtain a compound of formula 5. According to the preparation process, expensive trifluoromethanesulfonic acid is replaced with cheap anhydrous aluminium trichloride in the Friedel-Crafts acylation step, and the yield is improved, so that the cost of preparing the compound is greatly reduced, and the high-quality product is obtained; and compared with the traditional method, the preparation process has obvious advantages.