Culter dabryi, a medium-sized economic cyprinid fish, is widely distributed in East Asia. We sequenced the complete mitochondrial genome of this species. The genome is 16,622 bp in length, and consists of 22 transfer RNA genes, 13 protein-coding genes, two ribosomal RNA genes and the non-coding control region with a structural organization conserved relative to that of other fishes. The overall base composition of C. dabryi in descending order is A 31.51%, C 27.60%, T 24.95% and G 15.94%, with a slight A + T bias. The mitogenome sequence data may provide useful information to the population genetics analysis of C. dabryi and the elucidation of evolutionary mechanisms in the endemic clade of East Asian Cyprinidae.