The intrinsic optical bistability of the nonlinear composite consisting of coated cylinders with nonlinear core and graded Drude shell is investigated with self-consistent mean-field approximation. We derive the nonlinear equation of near field for such graded composite in the quasistatic limit. We demonstrate that the bistability threshold and the bistable width are highly dependent on the core radius, the incident frequency, and the graded coefficient of the coated cylinder inclusion. It is found that the optical bistability appears only when the core radius and the incident frequency satisfy some specific conditions. Therefore, the optical bistability for nonlinear composite materials may be optimized by the suitable adjustment of the physical and geometrical parameters. Our results may be helpful for the design of the nonlinear device with appropriate bistability.