The easy-plane anisotropy of Y2Co17 rare earth soft magnetic alloy has high saturation magnetization, operating frequency, and good impedance matching. Therefore, it is expected to become a kind of high-performance microwave absorbing material. In this paper, Y2Co17 alloy was prepared by reduction-diffusion method, and its micro powder was prepared as polyurethane (PU) based composite absorbing materials (Y2Co17/PU composites). The microwave properties of composites with different volume fractions are calculated. The composites showed outstanding absorption characteristics in the range of 20-30 vol%, and the minimum reflection loss (RL) was less than -50 dB. When the volume fraction was 25%, the effective absorption bandwidth can cover the X-band at a thickness of 1.5 mm, and the Ku-band at a thickness of 1.08 mm. The absorption mechanism was analyzed by the interface reflection model. The RL absorption peak bandwidth mechanism was discussed by using the amplitude relation, and calculating the effective absorption bandwidth at different thicknesses. The effective absorption bandwidth values were in good agreement with the theoretical expectation.