The objectives of this study are to analyze the performance of a river water-source heat pump and to carry out economic assessment for the heat pump. The COP of the river water-source heat pump was 3-21% higher than that of the air-source heat pump because river water provides stable operating temperature compared with air temperature throughout the year. The economic analysis was carried out by comparing the initial and operating cost of the river water-source heat pump with those of the conventional air-source heat pump. The ratio of the life cycle operating cost to the life cycle cost increased with the increase of building capacity. The payback period was found to be less than 3.5 years when the capacity of the river water-source heat pump was larger than 10 RT.