Objective Using DRG to analyze the impacts on inpatient costs of a hospital in Guangzhou as incurred by clinical pathway management. Methods As performed by BJ-DRGs, we selected DRG grouping information and medical record homepage information of the inpatients discharged from a tertiary hospital in Guangzhou in 2016. Then we compared the impacts of clinical pathway management on overall inpatients costs and the difference of inpatient costs for the DRG group. Results The median of inpatient costs in the clinical pathway group was 9239.41 yuan, was lower than that of control group which was 12358.06 yuan, and the difference was statistical difference (P<0.001). Cost composition analysis found that the costs of treatment, examination, medicine, surgery and the others in the clinical pathway group were much lower than that of the control group, while the cost of materials was relatively high. Among the 14 DRG group study, there were 6 DRG groups which the inpatient costs of the clinical path group was obviously lower than the control group. Conclusion The implementation of clinical pathway management may reduce the inpatient costs and change the makeup of costs. Therefore, combining with DRG, we actively promote the refined management of clinical pathway, which may effectively control the costs of diseases and the unreasonable growth of medical expenses.