When the airborne laser transmitter is located above or in the center of the cloud, the cloud will reduce the laser communication performance. In order to solve this problem, the effects of different types of clouds on laser energy attenuation, signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), maximum symbol transmission rate and bit error rate are simulated and analyzed. It is concluded that the cloud mainly causes laser energy attenuation, which affects maximum transmission rate and bit error rate, but has little effect on SNR. For communication systems with link margin greater than 18.9 dB, 4 km cloud cover is allowed on the link. The effect of cloud on the maximum communication rate and bit error rate is mainly caused by inter-symbol crosstalk caused by time extension. Cirrus has little effect on communication performance, cumulus has a great impact on communication performance, and stratus, stratocumulus, and cumulonimbus have a greater influence on the communication performance, but the differences between the three types of clouds are small and could be not be distinguished. Altostratus cloud and nimbostratus have greatest influence on communication performance, of which nimbostratus has greater influence than altostratus cloud.