Mitogen-activated protein kinase(MAPK) family plays a key role in the regulation of gene expression and cytoplasmic function, and also plays an important role in the development of tumor. Recently, MAPK4, a novel member of MAPK family, has been found to promote the progression of lung cancer. However, the role of MAPK4 has not been reported in cervical cancer. In this study, we first analyzed MAPK4 mRNA levels in 65 tumor cell lines from 12 tissue types by GSCA online software. We found MAPK4 was highly expressed in HeLa cells. The MAPK4 levels were lower in SiHa cells relative to HeLa cells. And then these two cervical cancer cells were selected for further study. Firstly, the MAPK4 levels were depleted in HeLa cells, and then the proliferation ability of HeLa cells was detected by CCK8 assay. We found that depletion of MAPK4 significantly decreased the proliferation ability of HeLa cells. Next, MAPK4 overexpression plasmids were transfected in SiHa cells, and then cell proliferation was detected. We found that MAPK4 overexpression significantly increased the cell viability of SiHa cells. Moreover, we explored the molecular mechanism of MAPK4 induced proliferation of cervical cancer cells. By Western blot, we showed that MAPK4 promoted AKT activity in both cervical cancer cells. These results suggested that MAPK4 might promote the proliferation of cervical cancer cells by activating AKT. In conclusion, our results showed that MAPK4 could be used as a marker of cervical cancer proliferation potential and a potential molecular target for cervical cancer treatment. This study provided new insights for the pathogenesis of cervical cancer, and exerted a certain value for the development of new targeted drugs for the treatment of cervical cancer.