The characteristics of metal belt drive with magnet (MBDM) are introduced in this paper. The transmission characteristics are also analyzed and discussed, such as effective tension, linear velocity and elastic sliding ratio. Finally, some performance parameters involved are determined by experiment. The results show that the friction force between pulley and metal belt can be increased by a great extent because of the coupling action of magnetic attraction and initial tension. The transmission efficiency of MBDM can reach from 95 % to 98 % , but the elastic sliding ratio is usually not more than 0.1%.