Objective To investigate the predictive value of heparin binding protein (HBP) for acute kidney injury (AKI) in sepsis patients. Methods A retrospective analysis was carried out on 70 sepsis patients admitted to the emergency department of the Third Hospital of Shanxi Medical University from May 2020 to May 2021. According to being complicated with AKI on admission or not, they were divided into AKI group (n=41) and non-AKI group (n=29). HBP level and other clinical data were compared between the 2 groups. SPSS statistics 19.0 was used for statistical analysis. Data comparison between 2 groups was carried out using student′s t test, rank sum test or Chi-square test depending on different data types. Spearman correlation analysis was employed to analyze the correlation between HBP and other clinical data. Logistic regression analysis was adopted to analyze the risk factors for AKI in sepsis patients, and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was drawn to evaluate the predictive values of the risk factors. Results Significant differences were observed between the AKI group and non-AKI group in HBP [176.24 (100.77,255.92) vs 44.02 (23.15,100.92) ng/ml], serum creatinine (SCR) [204.50 (137.10,363.35) vs 92.30 (70.70,109.25) μmol/L], acute physiology and chronic health evaluation Ⅱ (APACHE Ⅱ) score [(25.22±8.17) vs (17.45±5.05) points], sequential organ failure assessment (SOFA) score [(14.63±3.75) vs (7.48±3.80) points] and procalcitonin [PCT, 26.00 (14.39,71.03) vs 3.73 (0.63,11.99) ng/L] (all P<0.05). HBP was positively correlated with SCR, APACHE Ⅱ score, SOFA score and PCT (r=0.538,0.341,0.566,0.444; all P＜0.05), and negative correlated with estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR, r=-0.546, P<0.001). Logistic regression analysis showed that both HBP (OR=1.024,95%CI 1.012-1.036) and SOFA score (OR=1.581,95%CI 1.294-1.932) were risk factors for AKI in sepsis patients (P<0.05). ROC analysis indicated that HBP had predictive value for AKI in sepsis patients, with a cut-off value of 79.895, a sensitivity of 92.7%, and a specificity of 72.4%. Conclusion HBP can be regarded as an effective predictor of AKI in patients with sepsis.