Objective To understand the sugar-sweetened beverages consumption, free sugar intake and its energy proportion among urban residents aged 3 and above in China. Methods According to stratified multistage cluster random sampling, this study selected the consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages of 13 083 people aged 3 and above in 18 provinces in China by three nonconsecutive 24 h dietary recalls. The data of sugar content in sugar-sweetened beverages was obtained from the special monitoring carried out by China National Center for Food Safety Risk Assessment. The simple distribution model was used to calculate individual free sugar intake and its energy proportion ratio of sugar-sweetened beverages per day. Results The consumption rate of sugar-sweetened beverages of urban residents aged 3 years and above in China was 11.35% (1 485/13 083), with that of men (12.14%, 768/6 326) was slightly higher than that of women (10.61%, 717/6 757). The consumption rate of sugar-sweetened beverages was highest in the 13-17 age group (27.20%, 139/511) and lowest in the group of over 60 (3.29%, 62/1 884). The average consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages in general population and consumers were 18.49 g/d and 162.89 g/d, respectively. The median consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages were and 130.00 g/d, respectively. The average consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages was the highest in 13-17 years old group (54.84 g/d in general population and 201.61 g/d in consumers, respectively) and lowest in the group of over 60 (3.88 g/d in general population and 117.77 g/d in consumers, respectively). The average free sugar intake via sugar-sweetened beverages in general population and consumers were 1.44 g/d and 12.71 g/d, respectively. The median free sugar intake were 0 and 10.08 g/d, respectively. The P95 value intake of free sugar was highest in 13-17 years old group (25.71 g/d in general population and 40.73 g/d in consumers, respectively) and followed by the group of 18-29 years old group (19.24 g/d in general population and 39.01 g/d in consumers, respectively). The average energy proportion ratio of sugar-sweetened beverages in general population and consumers were 0.35%TE and 3.06%TE, respectively. The median energy proportion ratio of sugar-sweetened beverages were 0 and 2.37%TE, respectively. The P95 value of energy proportion ratio of sugar-sweetened beverages was the highest in 13-17 years old group (6.04%TE in general population and 9.31%TE in consumers, respectively) and lowest in the group of over 60 (0 in general population and 4.05%TE in consumers, respectively). Conclusion The consumption, free sugar intake and free sugar energy proportion ratio via sugar-sweetened beverages among Chinese urban residents aged 3 and above were at low level. However, the P95 value of the energy proportion ratio of sugar-sweetened beverages was close to 10% in children and teenage consumers. With the promotion of the National Nutrition Program, education related to nutrition should be taken into account to guide the industry and targeted people to reduce sugar scientifically.