Let A ( G ) be the adjacent matrix and D ( G ) the diagonal matrix of the degrees of a graph G, respectively. For 0 ≤ α ≤ 1 , the A α -matrix is the general adjacency and signless Laplacian spectral matrix having the form of A α ( G ) = α D ( G ) + ( 1 − α ) A ( G ) . Clearly, A 0 ( G ) is the adjacent matrix and 2 A 1 2 is the signless Laplacian matrix. A cactus is a connected graph such that any two of its cycles have at most one common vertex, that is an extension of the tree. The A α -spectral radius of a cactus graph with n vertices and k cycles is explored. The outcomes obtained in this paper can imply some previous bounds from trees to cacti. In addition, the corresponding extremal graphs are determined. Furthermore, we proposed all eigenvalues of such extremal cacti. Our results extended and enriched previous known results.