AISI 304 stainless steel has high resistance to corrosion due to the presence of a self-healing chromium oxide film on the surface, which also accounts for the difficulty in plating. Surface cleaning of this alloy is of fundamental importance in gold plating since its effectiveness puts an upper limit on the quality of the final coating. The cleaning of AISI 304 stainless steel was investigated with elimination of artificial passive oxide film and degreasing of remaining buffing wax as stearic acid. The familiar cleaning methods i.e. ultrasonic cleaning, electro-cleaning and activation treatment were fabricated in this study. Activation treatment showed best cleaning efficiency for elimination of passive oxide film among these methods, which was also confirmed by AES (Auger electron spectrometer) analysis. However, the best condition of cleaning was obtained by combining these methods. Electrocleaning time, for degreasing the stearic acid layer, was decreased with increasing amount of added KCN.