A substrate polishing apparatus wherein a semiconductor substrate is held by a top ring 10-2 or 11-2 and is pressed against a polishing surface of a polishing table 10-1 or 10-2. A surface to be polished of the semiconductor substrate is polished by a relative movement between the semiconductor substrate and the polishing surface. The apparatus includes a pressing force changing mechanism for changing a pressing force for pressing the semiconductor substrate, a relative movement seed changing mechanism for changing the number of revolutions of the top ring and/or the polishing table, and a control mechanism. The control mechanism performs the polishing through plural polishing processes on the polishing table 10-1 or 10-2 while changing the pressing force and the number of revolutions.