Abstract: In order to acquire the global distribution of potassium (K) on the lunar surface, the methods and data processing procedure of the Chang’E-1 (CE1) gamma-ray spectrometer (GRS) were studied using the level 2C spectra data measured by the CE1-GRS, and the preliminary global count map of K was derived. K is primarily concentrated within and around the western-most maria on the nearside and a secondary abundance concentration is located in the South Pole-Aitken basin. On the farside, K generally shows the feature of low abundance. Compared with the global map of K measured by the Lunar Prospector (LP) GRS, the result shows that major features of the global K distribution appeared in CE1-GRS map are consistent with that from LP-GRS.