Objective To evaluate the Kyoto gastritis score for diagnosing Helicobacter pylori (HP) infection in Chinese people. Methods A total of 902 cases who underwent 13C-urea breath test and gastroscopy at the same time at the Digestive Endoscopy center of Renmin Hospital of Wuhan University from January 2020 to December 2020 were studied retrospectively, including 345 cases of HP-positive and 557 of HP-negative. The differences of mucosal features and Kyoto gastritis score between HP-positive and HP-negative patients were analyzed. A receiver operating characteristic curve was plotted to predict HP infection by Kyoto gastritis score. Results Compared with HP-negative patients, nodules [8.1% (28/345) VS 0.2% (1/557), χ2=86.29, P<0.001], diffuse redness [47.8% (165/345) VS 6.6% (37/557), χ2=413.63, P<0.001], atrophy [27.8% (96/345) VS 13.8% (77/557), χ2=52.90, P<0.001] and fold enlargement [69.0% (238/345) VS 36.6% (204/557), χ2=175.38, P<0.001] occurred more frequently in HP-positive patients. For predicting HP infection, nodules showed the highest specificity [99.8% (556/557)] and positive predictive value [96.6% (28/29)], diffuse redness showed the largest area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) of 0.707, and fold enlargement showed the highest sensitivity [69.0% (238/345)] and negative predictive value [76.7% (353/460)]. The Kyoto gastritis score of HP-positive patients was higher than that of HP-negative patients [2 (1, 2) VS 0 (0, 1), Z=20.82, P<0.001]. Furthermore, at an optimal threshold of 2, the AUC of the Kyoto gastritis score for predicting HP infection was 0.779. Conclusion Nodules, diffuse redness, atrophy and fold enlargement under gastroscopy can suggest positive of HP infection, and the Kyoto gastritis score≥2 is sufficient reference to diagnose HP positive.