The invention discloses a refining method of pitavastatin tert-butyl ester, which comprises the following steps: cooling and crystallizing a mixed solvent in which pitavastatin tert-butyl ester raw materials are dissolved, filtering, and drying; wherein, the mixed solvent It is a mixture of methyl tert-butyl ether and non-polar organic solvent; the non-polar organic solvent is n-hexane, n-heptane, cyclohexane, n-pentane, cyclopentane, octane or isooctane. According to the refining method of the present invention, the isomer content in the obtained pitavastatin tert-butyl ester is low, and the refining effect is good. Epimer impurity 1, epimer impurity 2 and enantiomer impurity The contents are all below 0.05%. Moreover, the refining method of the present invention has high yield, low uncontrollability, simple operation, is suitable for large-scale industrial production, and can prepare high-purity pitavastatin calcium.