Abstract Compared with insulating glass, tempered vacuum glass (TVG) is not only safer, but also more effective in sound insulation and heat insulation. In this paper, for the sound insulation performance of tempered vacuum glass, the acoustic wave transfer model of TVG is established, and the equation for sound insulation is deduced by using wave transfer method (WTM). Then the actual sound insulation loss of tempered vacuum glass was tested based on the method of reverberation room and anechoic room. finally, the sound insulation loss of tempered vacuum glass under different factors is analyzed. The results show that the theoretical calculation results are consistent with the experimental results about the general change trend of the sound insulation. The thicker the glass, the better the sound insulation. The more the supports in vacuum layer of tempered vacuum glass, the smaller the sound insulation loss. The thickness of the vacuum layer has different sound insulation loss at different frequencies. When the thickness of the vacuum layer is about 0.25 mm, tempered vacuum glass has the best sound insulation performance. This research will have important guiding significance for the selection of building sound insulation glass and the design of sound insulation glass.