To investigate the effects of filter on the puff-by-puff release trends of different chemical components in mainstream cigarette smoke, the puff-by-puff releases of 63 smoke components from cigarettes with or without cellulose acetate filters were compared by recording the positions of the burn line for different puff numbers on filtered cigarettes and marking at the corresponding positions of the unlit cigarettes. The individual puff filtration efficiencies of filtered cigarettes for smoke components were determined by allowing the cigarette to smolder to the marked positions, and the effects of filter filtration on the puff-by-puff release trends of cigarette smoke components were analyzed. The results showed that: 1) The puff-by-puff release of smoke components of filtered cigarettes were related to the boiling points of the smoke components. With increasing puff number, there were three main releasing trends, namely, the components with lower boiling points were released continuously, those with medium boiling points were first increased and then decreased, and those with higher boiling points first increased and then stabilized. 2) The puff-by-puff releases of the smoke components of the unfiltered cigarettes all showed an increasing trend as the puff number increased. 3) Filter's filtration efficiencies increased with cigarette rod shortening during smoking, the difference in the puff-by-puff release trends for different classes of smoke components mainly depended on the magnitude of changes of filter filtration efficiencies.