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Residues in surface water of ribavirin, which used extensively during the COVID-19 pandemic, have become an emerging issue due to its adverse impact on the environment and human health. UV/H2O2and UV/peroxydisulfate (PDS) have different degradation effects on ribavirin, and the same operational parameter have different effects on the two processes. In this study, the reaction mechanism and degradation efficiency for ribavirin were studied to compare the differences under UV/H2O2and UV/PDS processes. We calculated the total rate constants of ribavirin with HO•and SO4•-in the liquid phase as 2.73 × 108and 9.39 × 105M−1s−1. The density functional theory (DFT) calculation results showed that HO•and SO4•-react more readily with ribavirin via H-abstraction (HAA). The nitrogen-containing heterocyclic ring is difficult to undergo ring-opening degradation. The UV/PDS process was more stable and performed better than the UV/H2O2for the ribavirin degradation when the same molar oxidant dosage was applied. HO•plays an extremely important role in the degradation of ribavirin by UV/PDS. The reason for this phenomenon is the combination of the higher yield of HO•produced in the UV/PDS process and the faster reaction rate of ribavirin with HO•. The UV/H2O2process is more sensitive to pH than UV/PDS. Alkaline condition can significantly inhibit the ribavirin degradation. The effects of natural organic matter (NOM) and ribavirin concentration were also compared. Eventually, the toxicity prediction of the product showed that the opening-ring products were more toxic than the parent compound.