This study presents a numerical procedure to optimize the compressor design to increase the surge margin of compressor with response surface method (RSM). The Box-Behnken design method is used to reduce the number of calculation for fitting the second-order response surface. In order to consider the increase of surge margin during numerical optimization without any calculation at the surge point, the slope of compressor characteristic curve at the design point is suggested as an objective function in the present optimization problem. Mean line performance analysis method is used to get the design and off-design characteristic curves of centrifugal compressor. The impeller exit angle, impeller exit height and impeller radius are chosen as design variables. The optimum shapes show the increase of surge margin for the surge margin optimization and increase of efficiency for the efficiency optimization in comparison with an initial shape.