A monitoring system for magnetic abrasive polishing process is necessary to ensure the polishing products the high quality and integrity. Acoustic emission (AE) signal is known to reflect the material removal phenomena in other machining processes. In a case of the magnetic abrasive polishing of non-magnetic materials, application of AE method is very difficult because of lower machining force on the surface of workpiece and the level of AE signal is extremely lower. In this study, AE sensor-based monitoring system is applied to the magnetic abrasive polishing. The relation between the level of the AE RMS and the surface roughness during the magnetic abrasive polishing of magnesium alloy steel is investigated.