A surface-coated cutting tool which has excellent chipping resistance and wearing resistance in high-speed cutting processing such as high-speed gear cutting processing, high-speed milling processing,and high-speed drilling processing. The surface-coated cutting tool comprises a tool base, e.g., a cemented carbide base, cermet base, or high-speed tool steel base, and at least a hard coating layerformed on a surface of the tool base and having a multilayer structure composed of a thin layer (A) and a thin layer (B) alternating therewith. The thin layer (A) is constituted of an (Al,Cr,Si)N layer satisfying the empirical formula ¢AlXCrYSiZ!N (wherein 0.2 <= X <= 0.45, 0.4 <= Y <= 0.75, 0.01 <=Z <= 0.2, and X+Y+Z=1 in terms of atomic ratio), and the thin layer (B) is constituted of an (Al,Ti,Si)N layer satisfying the empirical formula ¢AlUTiVSiW!N (wherein 0.05 <= U <= 0.75, 0.15 <= V <= 0.94, 0.01 <= W <= 0.1, and U+V+W=1 in terms of atomic ratio).