A surface-coated cutting tool having a base material and, formed thereon, a coating film, wherein the coating film has a hard layer comprising a compound selected from among a nitride, a carbonitride, a nitroxide and a carbonitroxide of one or more first elements selected from the group consisting of metals belonging to 4a, 5a and 6a Groups of the Periodic Table and B, Al and Si, and wherein the hard layer satisfies the followings: (a) in the nano indentation hardness test, (hmax - hf) / hmax is 0.2 to 0.7, wherein hmax represents the maximum indentation depth, and hf represents the indentation depth after the removal of a load (impression depth), (b) the hard layer has a film thickness of 0.5 to 15 mum, and (c) a hardness according to the nano indentation method is 20 to 80 GPa.