The activity and hydrothermal stability of Cu/SAPO and xMn-2Cu/SAPO for low-temperature selective catalytic reduction of NO x with ammonia were investigated. An ion-exchanged method was employed to synthesize xMn-2Cu/SAPO, which was characterized by N 2 adsorption, ICP-AES, X-ray diffraction (XRD), NH 3 -temperature programmed desorption (NH 3 -TPD), NO oxidation, X-ray photoelectron spectrum (XPS), UV-vis, H 2 -temperature programmed reduction (H 2 -TPR) and diffuse reflectance infrared Fourier transform spectra (DRIFTS). 2Mn-2Cu/SAPO and 4Mn-2Cu/SAPO showed the best SCR activity, in that at 150 C NO conversion reached 76% and N 2 selectivity was above 95% for the samples.NO oxidation results showed that the 2Mn-2Cu/SAPO had the best NO oxidation activity and the BET surface area decreased as manganese loading increased. XRD results showed that the metal species was well dispersed. NH 3 -TPD showed that the acid sites have no significant influence on the SCR activity of xMn-2Cu/SAPO. H 2 -TPR patterns showed good redox capacity for xMn-2Cu/SAPO. UV-vis and H 2 -TPR showed that the ratio of Mn 4+ to Mn 3+ increased as manganese loading increased. XPS spectra showed a significant amount of Mn 3+ and Mn 4+ species on the surface and addition of manganese increased the ratio of Cu 2+ . The promotion effect of manganese to 2Cu/SAPO comes from the generation of Mn 3+ and Mn 4+ species. Deduced from the DRIFTS spectra, the Elay-Rideal mechanism was effective on 4Mn-2Cu/SAPO.