Sapphire is widely used in many fields such as optics and integrated circuits, and these applications require increasingly high surface quality and polishing efficiency. Chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) technology is currently the only process technology to achieve global planarization of sapphire. Slurry is one of the key factors affecting the performance of CMP, and changes in its composition can greatly affect the polishing quality. Therefore, in this article the effects of two surfactants (JFCE and CDEA) on the material removal rate (MRR) and surface roughness of C-, A- and R-plane sapphire surfaces were investigated. The results indicate that both surfactants can improve the MRR and surface quality of sapphire. JFCE is slightly better than CDEA in the same condition.