To facilitate comparative analysis on the effects of numerous parameters concerning design and operation of a desiccant rotor, it is firstly required to represent the dehumidification performance as numerical indices. In this work is proposed two performance indices of a desiccant rotor: the humidity effectiveness and the enthalpy-leak ratio. The humidity effectiveness represents the actual dehumidification as compared with the dehumidification in an ideal case, while the enthalpy-leak ratio represents the enthalpy transfer from the regeneration side to the dehumidification side. In an ideal case, the two indices approach one and zero, respectively. The effects of numerous parameters on the dehumidification performance of a desiccant rotor are investigated through numerical simulation and represented with the two indices. The results show that the performance indices are mainly determined by three nondimensional parameters each representing the thermal capacity, the sorption capacity, and the transfer capacity of a desiccant rotor.