To reveal the strength characteristics of sandy loess under freeze-thaw cycles, taking sandy loess in Zizhou, Yulin, as a research object, the freeze-thaw cycle experiments on the sandy loess with different initial conditions was carried out, and the triaxial shear strength of the soil was determined after freezing and thawing. The results showed that:the surface of sandy loess after freezing and thawing showed a obvious structural damage phenomenon; the cohesion of soil body decreased with the increase of the number of freeze-thaw cycles firstly and then rebounded; the cohesive force of soil body after freezing and thawing decreased with the increase of the initial water content, and the freezing temperature had different influences on the cohesive force of soil body of different water content. It was also found that the friction angle of soil body decreased under freeze-thaw cycles, but the overall decrease was not significant and the decrease of soil body strength was mainly affected by the deterioration of cohesive forces. Both extreme low-temperature freezing at higher water contents and higher-temperature freezing at lower water contents accelerate the destruction of soil strength under freeze-thaw cycles.