The invention discloses a method for preparing 3, 4'-diaminodiphenyl ether, which mainly comprises the following steps: adding m-aminophenol, an acid-binding agent and a solvent into a condensation reaction kettle, stirring, heating under the protection of inert gas, keeping the temperature at 100-120 DEG C, dropwisely adding p-nitrochlorobenzene, keeping the temperature for 2-4 hours after 5-7 hours, and continuing the reaction; after the reaction is finished, filtering to remove inorganic salt, transferring a filtrate into a hydrogenation kettle, adding a noble metal catalyst and a cocatalyst, performing nitrogen replacement, maintaining the temperature at 60-80 DEG C, and introducing hydrogen for catalytic hydrogenation under the hydrogen pressure of not more than 0.5 MPa; after the reaction is finished, filtering out the catalyst, distilling the filtrate, removing the solvent, rectifying, collecting 206-210 DEG C (2-3 mmHg) fraction which is white 3, 4'-diaminodiphenyl ether, and packaging under the protection of nitrogen. The method is short in process step, low in energy consumption and low in production cost, the content of the obtained 3, 4'-diaminodiphenyl ether is largerthan 99.5%, and the total molar yield is larger than 93%.