Abstract In this work, we introduce a new class of light beam, the circular symmetric Airy beam (CSAB), which arises from the extensions of the one dimensional (1D) spectrum of Airy beam from rectangular coordinates to cylindrical ones. The CSAB propagates at initial stages with a single central lobe that autofocuses and then defocuses into the multi-ring structure. Then, these multi-ring perform the outward accelerations during the propagation. That means the CSAB may have the inverse propagation of the abruptly autofocusing Airy beam. Besides, the propagation features of the circular symmetric Airy vortex beam (CSAVB) also have been investigated briefly. Our results may offer a new tool for optical tweezers systems and the autofocusing as well as the self-healing properties of CSAB may be useful in optical treatment and optical communication.