Stall inception in a high-speed centrifugal compressor has been examined. The main objective was to find stall precursor and to develop a reliable stall warning method. For stall warning, a method which uses the spectrum at impeller frequency is suggested. The use of the spectrum at impeller frequency as a stall warning method showed a warning time of about two hundreds impeller revolutions. This method uses only one sensor that it has made the stall warning method more useful. And the well-known traveling wave energy method proved to be a good method for stall warning also in a high-speed centrifugal compressor. The warning time was about one hundred impeller revolutions at lower speeds, and about one thousand impeller revolutions at higher speeds. The stall warning methods used here were found to be robust and reliable. Therefore, it seems to be promising to set up a reliable stall avoidance control based on this analysis.