A method and device for extracting color features, relating to the field of image processing includes converting an original image into sub-images corresponding to channels in a color space, dividing the sub-images into a plurality of cells with identical size, and calculating the color histograms of each of the plurality of cells. A cell and neighboring cells thereof are defined as the effective scope of the cell, and a feature vector of the cell is determined according to a degree of similarity of the color histograms of every two neighboring cells in the effective scope. The feature vectors of the cells in the sub-images are concatenated to obtain feature vectors of the sub-images, and a feature vector of the original image is obtained according to the feature vectors of the sub-images.