Objective To study the influence on residual stress as the grinding residual stress has important influence on workpiece surface characteristics and ultrasonic vibration honing makes the grains obtain a great acceleration which changes the material removal mechanism. Methods The residual stress finite element theory was analyzed, the coupled thermal-mechanical finite element model was established for the ultrasonic vibration honing of a single CBN grain cutting 40CrNiMoA based on the thermal elastic-plastic theory. Steps of two cutting processes, unloading, constraint transformation and the cooling analysis were set. The surface residual stress distribution was obtained by numerical simulation under different vibration parameters and the simulation results were analyzed. Results The stress distribution at each analytical step was different, the ultrasonic vibration met the requirements of the simulation experiment. The honing force decreased by about 26% and the honing heat decreased by about 17% when applying ultrasonic vibration, the tangential residual stress was reduced, and the residual stress at vertical grinding direction was also reduced and changed from the tensile stress to the compressive stress. Conclusion Ultrasonic vibration decreases the honing force and the honing heat which changes the distribution of residual stress and numerical values. The vibration frequency near 20 kHz has little influence on residual stress. The tangential compressive residual stress increases and the honing tensile residual stress at the vertical direction decreases with the decreased honing speed. The tangential residual stress decreases and the residual stress at the vertical direction increases with the increased amplitude.