Pneumatic cylinders are widely used to actuators in automatic equipments because they are relatively inexpensive, simple to install and maintain, offer robust design and operation, are available in a wide range of standard sizes and design alternatives. This paper presents a comparative study among the dynamic characteristics of meter-out and meter-in speed control of pneumatic cushion cylinders with a relief valve type cushion mechanism. Because of the nonlinear differential equations and a requirement for simultaneous iterative solution in a mathematical model of a double acting pneumatic cushion cylinder, a computer simulation is carried out to investigate pressure, temperature, mass flow rate in cushion chamber and displacement and velocity time histories of piston under various operating conditions. It is found that the piston velocity and pressure response in meter-in speed control are more oscillatory than with meter-out those when pneumatic cushion cylinders are driven at a high-speed. In meter-out speed control, the effective area of the flow control valve is larger than that of meter-in, and the supply pressure has to be much higher than the pressure required to move the load because it has also to overcome the back pressure in cushion chamber.