In this paper, a self-powered lightning current sensor based on the electromagnetic induction principle has been proposed. The sensor whose signal coil and power harvesting coil are nested in lightning channel (such as grounding wire of lightning arresters) can be triggered and powered by the lighting current. The signal acquisition is realized by the signal coil, and the polarity and peak value of the lightning current will be measured and stored in the non-volatile storage. The sensor can self-powered by large lightning transient current and realize linear measurement of lightning current within the range of 10kA to 200kA.