A method was established for the determination of 20 phthalic acid esters（PAEs） in waterborne wall coatings by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry（GC-MS） after dispersive solid phase extraction（d-SPE） cleanup.The samples were dispersed with water,and stirred uniformly,then extracted with acetonitrile-methyl tert-butyl ether（9∶1）.The ultimate solution was detected by GC-MS under selected ion monitoring mode and quantified by the external standard method.The calibration curves of 20 PAEs were linear in the range of 0.01-10 mg/L with correlation coefficients（r） more than 0.99.The limits of detection（LODs） of the method for target compounds ranged from 0.07 mg/kg to 1.40 mg/kg,and the limits of quantitation of the method（LOQs） varied from 0.3 mg/kg to 4.7 mg/kg.The mean recoveries ranged from 86.3% to 115.3% with relative standard deviations（RSDs） less than 8%.This method was suitable for the identification and quantification of 20 PAEs in waterborne wall coatings due to its simplicity and accuracy.