ABSTRACT The quantitative characterization and the accurate determination of the degree of danger of coal spontaneous combustion (CSC) characteristics are the hotspots and difficulties in the field of coal mine safety. This study compares the test results obtained from the Large-scale CSC experiment and the Kilogram-level CSC experiment and preliminarily determines the main macroscopic characterization parameters of CSC in Huangling No.2 well (including characteristic temperature, spontaneous combustion period, oxygen consumption rate and heat release intensity). At the same time, the various rules of the limit parameters of CSC (including the minimum float coal thickness, the minimum oxygen concentration and the maximum air leakage intensity) of the two experimental results are compared and analyzed. The results show that compared with the Large-scale CSC experiment, the Kilogram-level CSC experiment has the characteristics of rapid and accurate determination of macroscopic characterization parameters of CSC. Therefore, it can be used for the test, the accurate determination of characterization parameters and the determination of the tendency of the CSC process. It is of great significance to the prediction and the risk of CSC.