In order to guide the selection of deformation monitoring technology for mountain tunnels, improve the monitoring efficiency and reduce the cost, comparison is made between manual monitoring and automatic monitoring from the aspects of technological and economic benefit. The technical and economic characteristics of different monitoring methods are analyzed and the optimized selection under different application conditions is summarized. And then a feasible program of deformation monitoring technology selection is put forward, which can provide reference for scheme selection of deformation monitoring technology for tunnel construction in southwest China at present.