A surface-coated cutting tool with a hard coating layer exhibiting an excellent flaking and chipping resistance in a high-speed heavy and intermittent cutting is provided. The vapor-deposited hard coating layer has a lower layer (Ti compound layer) and an upper layer (±-type Al 2 O 3 layer). Thirty to 70 % of Al 2 O 3 crystal grains directly above the lower layer are oriented to (11-20) plane. Forty-five % or more of all of the Al 2 O 3 crystal grains are oriented to (0001) plane. Preferably, the outermost surface layer of the lower layer is an oxygen-containing TiCN layer having oxygen content of 0.5 to 3 atomic % only within the depth region of 500 nm. The ratio of the number of Al 2 O 3 crystal grains directly above the outermost surface layer to the number of crystal grains of the Ti carbonitride layer in the outermost surface layer is 0.01 to 0.5 in the interface.