The continuous development of nanotechnology requires more powerful nanoparticle characterization techniques. Single particle inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (SP-ICP-MS) is a new technique for nanoparticle detection in recent years. It can quickly provide researchers with information on nanoparticle size, size distribution, particle number concentration and element composition, with small interference for samples. In this paper, the factors influencing the detection of gold nanoparticles (AuNPs)by SP-ICP-MS were discussed, which include the setting of parameters of the instrument, such as dwell time, the influence of sample matrix, including salt-containing and carbon-containingmatrix, and the dissolved analytical elements. The detection limit of gold nanoparticles was 23 nm. The recoveries of AuNPs were measured by spiked recovery. The recoveries were 97.7% and 84.4% for Taihu Lake and Dongli Lake, respectively. Finally, some existing problems were discussed in nanoparticle detection by SP-ICP-MS.