The lever compensation effect of missile acceleration autopilot results from the distance between accelerometer and missile center of gravity. Since the distance is rather small, the lever compensation effect has long been ignored when designing missile acceleration autopilot. But in this paper, the influence of lever compensation effect towards autopilot robustness and stability is deduced in formulation and proved by an actual example. At the same time, the principle of lever compensation effect is analyzed by root locus method. The conclusion shows that lever compensation effect is one of the key factors affecting the performance and capability of acceleration autopilots rather than a neglectable aspect. As a result, missile control engineers should consider sufficiently the influences of lever compensation effect.