The invention discloses a metal-doped hollow mesoporous silicon oxide nanosphere and a preparation method thereof. The nanosphere is characterized in that a doped metal element is one or two or more of group IIIA elements, group IVA elements, group VA elements, transition metals and rare earth metals in the periodical table, and a molar ratio of the doped metal element to silicon atoms is 0.01-0.2; and the nanosphere has a uniform two-dimensional hexagonal porous structure, the particle size is 60-200nm, the cavity diameter is 40-180nm, the spherical wall thickness is 10-30nm, the aperture of mesopores is 2.0-4.0nm, the specific surface area is 600-1600m<2>.g<-1>, and the pore volume is 2.0-4.0cm<3>.g<-1>. The metal doped hollow mesoporous silicon oxide nanosphere material can be directly synthesized through a sol-gel technology without a hard template, so etching and other post-treatment steps are avoided, thereby the preparation method has the advantages of simple process, mild conditions, cheap raw materials, high reaction efficiency, strong operability and easy industrial production. The hollow mesoporous nanosphere prepared in the invention has a highly ordered mesoporous structure and a large pore volume, so internal and external transportation and storage of guest molecules are facilitated, and the nanosphere can be used in catalysis, adsorption, separation an drug controlled release processes.