In order to investigate the effect of water content on the energy evolution of red sandstone, the axial loading–unloading experiments on dry and water-saturated sandstone samples were conducted, and the distribution and evolution of elastic energy and dissipated energy within the rock were measured.The results show that the saturation process from dry to fully-saturated states reduces the strength, rigidity and brittleness of the rock by 30.2%, 25.5% and 16.7%, respectively. The water-saturated sample has larger irreversible deformation in the pre-peak stage and smaller stress drop in the post-peak stage.The saturation process decreases the accumulation energy limit by 38.9%, but increases the dissipated energy and residual elastic energy density, thus greatly reducing the magnitude and rate of energy release. The water-saturated sample has lower conversion efficiency to elastic energy by 3% in the prepeak region; moreover, the elastic energy ratio falls with a smaller range in the post-peak stage.Therefore, saturation process can greatly reduce the risk of dynamic disaster, and heterogeneous water content can lead to dynamic disaster possibly on the other hand. In order to investigate the effect of water content on the energy evolution of red sandstone, the axial loading-unloading experiments on dry and water-saturated sandstone samples were conducted, and the distribution and evolution of elastic energy and dissipated energy within the rock were The results show that the saturation process from dry to fully-saturated states reduces the strength, rigidity and brittleness of the rock by 30.2%, 25.5% and 16.7%, respectively. The water-saturated sample has larger irreversible deformation in the pre- peak stage and smaller stress drop in the post-peak stage. The saturation process decreases the accumulation energy limit by 38.9%, but increases the dissipated energy and residual elastic energy density, thus reducing the magnitude and rate of energy release. The water- saturated sample has lower conversion efficiency to elastic energy by 3% in the prepeak region; moreover, the elastic energy ratio falls with a smaller range in the p ost-peak stage.Therefore, saturation process can greatly reduce the risk of dynamic disaster, and heterogeneous water content can lead to dynamic disaster possibly on the other hand.