The invention discloses a visible-light-responsive vanadium-containing composite oxide photocatalyst Ba3Sn1-xZrxV4O15 and a preparation method thereof. The chemical composition formula of the vanadium-containing composite oxide photocatalyst is Ba3Sn1-xZrxV4O15 (0<=x<=1). The preparation method comprises the following steps: 1) weighing and preparing 99.9% analytically pure chemical raw materials BaCO3, SnO2, ZrO2- and V2O5 according to the chemical formula of Ba3Sn1-xZrxV4O15, wherein 0<=x<=1; 2) mixing the raw materials prepared in the step (1), putting in a ball milling tank, adding zirconium oxide spheres and anhydrous ethanol, performing ball milling for 4-10 hours, mixing, grinding, taking out, drying, and sieving with a 200-mesh sieve; and 3) presintering the powder obtained in the step (2) at 750-850 DEG C, keeping the temperature for 6-8 hours, naturally cooling to room temperature, and then pulverizing through a ball mill until the particle diameter is reduced to 2 mu m, thus obtaining the vanadium-containing composite oxide photocatalyst Ba3Sn1-xZrxV4O15 (0<=x<=1) powder. According to the invention, the preparation method is simple and low in cost; and the prepared photocatalyst has excellent catalytic property, and has the actions of decomposing harmful chemical substances and organic biomass and performing sterilization under the irradiation of visible light.