A device and method for estimating a carrier to interference-plus-noise ratio (CINR) in an OFDM system are provided. The CINR estimating method includes (a) receiving a preamble symbol and transmit subcarrier transmitted from a base station; (b) calculating an interference power and noise power using the preamble symbol and transmit subcarrier; (c) calculating a receive power used for the base station to transmit a preamble and data symbol; (d) estimating a preamble CINR value using an interference power, a noise power, and a receive power; (e) calculating the noise power from a subcarrier not transmitting a preamble; and (f) calculating an average CINR of data subcarriers using the preamble CINR value and the noise power. With such a method, a precise carrier to interference-plus-noise ratio (CINR) can be estimated using a preamble when the preamble power is amplified in comparison with the data symbol power, the subcarriers are differently applied for the respective cells, and the traffic of the data area is partially loading.