Abstract: Establishing a water resources ecological compensation standard model is one of the research hotpots in the current ecological economy. This paper constructs an inter-provincial ecological compensation model of water resources for the Yangtze River economic belt by accounting for the grey water footprint of the eleven provinces/cities in the Yangtze River economic belt from 2007 to 2016. The results indicate:(1)The total grey water footprint of the Yangtze River economic belt in 2007-2016 showed a small fluctuation trend, with the highest proportion of agricultural grey water footprint;(2)The grey water footprint load index of the eleven provinces/cities in the Yangtze River economic belt is roughly divided into five categories, with the high indexes main locate in downstream areas and the low indexes are most in upper and middle Yangtze River; (3) From the perspective of inter-provincial ecological compensation, it could be found, in 2007-2016, some regions such as Yunnan, Guizhou, Sichuan, Hunan, and Jiangxi, has always been the areas for receiving ecological compensation, while other areas like Shanghai, Jiangsu, Anhui, and Hubei are regions to pay ecological compensation.