Performance improvement of Small hydro turbine is a very important subject to solve in the stage of introduction and development of the turbine. Cross-flow hydro turbine should be also studied more in detail for the turbine performance in order to extend the sites of application. In order to improve the turbine performance, the effect of the turbine shape on the turbine performance should be examined. Therefore, the effect of runner blade number on the turbine performance is investigated by use of a commercial CFD code. The results show that runner blade number gives remarkable effect on the efficiency and output power of the turbine. Pressure on the surface of the runner blade changes considerably by the blade number at Stage 1, but relatively small change of velocity distribution occurs in the flow passage.