GB 3095-2026Ambient air quality standards (English PDF)

Foreword

This document was issued on 27 February 2026 by the State Administration for Market Regulation and the Standardization Administration of the PRC, and took effect on 1 March 2026.

It replaces GB 3095-2012 and its 2018 amendment (GB 3095-2012/XG1-2018), both of which are superseded.

The department in charge of the standard is the Ministry of Ecology and Environment. It is classified under ICS 13.040.20 (ambient atmospheres) and Chinese classification Z50.

It is a GB standard without the /T suffix: compliance is mandatory in China.

Only two days separate issue from entry into force, which is unusually short for a national standard of this reach.

1 Scope

GB 3095 is the standard that decides what counts as acceptable air in China, and every air quality figure published in the country is measured against it. It divides territory into ambient air functional zones, assigns each zone a class, and sets for each the pollutant items, the averaging periods and the concentration limits that apply. It then specifies the monitoring methods to be used, the data validity rules that determine when a measurement series may be relied on at all, and the implementation and supervision duties that fall on environmental authorities. An informative annex adds reference concentrations for cadmium, mercury, arsenic, hexavalent chromium and fluoride. The 2026 edition supersedes GB 3095-2012 together with its 2018 amendment. Anyone whose discharge permit, environmental impact assessment or monitoring contract still cites the 2012 edition is working to a text that is no longer in force, which is what makes this revision urgent rather than routine for industrial operators, EIA consultants and monitoring laboratories.

2 Normative references

Clause 2 lists the documents that GB 3095-2026 refers to normatively: their requirements apply through the citation, so a copy in force is needed alongside this standard.

The standards cited are: GB/T 9801, HJ 193, HJ/T 194, HJ 479, HJ 482, HJ 504, HJ 539, HJ 590, HJ 618, HJ/T 630, HJ 646, HJ 647, HJ 653, HJ 654, HJ 655, HJ 657, HJ 664, HJ 777, HJ 817, HJ 818, HJ 829, HJ 830, HJ 956, HJ 965, HJ 1043, HJ 1044, HJ 1225, HJ 1263.

3 Terms and definitions

Clause 3 defines 16 terms used throughout the document:

3.1 Ambient air; 3.2 Total suspended particle (TSP); 3.3 Particulate matter (PM10); 3.4 Particulate matter (PM2.5); 3.5 Lead; 3.6 Benzo[a]pyrene (BaP); 3.7 1-hour average; 3.8 8-hour average; 3.9 Maximum daily 8-hour average; 3.10 Daily average; 3.11 Monthly average; 3.12 Quarterly average; 3.13 Annual mean; 3.14 Reference state; 3.15 Reference method; 3.16 Equivalent method.