The invention relates to a shallow groove radial ball bearing which comprises an outer ring, an inner ring, balls embedded between an outer ring groove and an inner ring groove, and retainers for uniformly isolating the balls along the circumferential direction, wherein a groove depth coefficient, namely, a ratio of the depth of the groove of the outer ring or / and the inner ring to the radius of each ball is smaller than that of a corresponding deep groove ball bearing; the reduction of the depth of the groove is generally implemented by adjusting the diameter of a stop edge of a ferrule or a chamfer at a groove edge. According to the shallow groove radial ball bearing, the groove depth is reduced, and the containment friction area of a ferrule groove to each ball is diminished; the shallow groove radial ball bearing is very favorable for the reduction of the energy consumption of the bearing, starting of friction torque, running of the friction torque, temperature rising, improvement of the running sensitivity and the like and is an important measure for a friction reduction design, a sensitivity design and a green design of a rolling bearing; the shallow groove radial ball bearing has very important engineering practical significance.