The invention discloses a master-slave control method for an energy storage inverter based on a virtual synchronous generator. The energy storage inverter comprises a master control inverter and a slave control inverter, wherein the master control inverter adopts a voltage source output mode based on the virtual synchronous generator to provide amplitude and frequency of network voltage, provide virtual inertia and a virtual damping ratio according to the capacity of the master control inverter, and meanwhile provide static active and passive current quotas to each inverter; the slave control inverter adopts a current source output mode based on the virtual synchronous generator to receive static active and passive current quotas issued by the master control inverter, and meanwhile provide the virtual inertia according to the capacity of the slave control inverter. According to the method, in island parallel operation, a load is non-uniform and fluidity is relatively low under various load conditions, and relatively high output voltage power quality is provided; compared with traditional master-slave control, a controller structure does not need to be changed when switching between grid connection and disconnection is performed, and the master control inverter and the slave control inverter independently provide the virtual inertia without depending on communication, so that improvement on system stability under dynamic condition is facilitated, and the reliability is relatively high.