The present invention provides a rubber composition and a pneumatic tire using the rubber composition. The rubber composition which comprises: a rubber component comprising a styrene-butadiene copolymer rubber or a blend of the styrene-butadiene copolymer rubber and another conjugated diene base rubber with the styrene-butadiene copolymer rubber being 70% by weight or more of the entire blend, and the entire content of styrene is 30 to 40% by weight of the entire rubber component; silica in an amount of 10 to 60 parts by weight per 100 parts by weight of the rubber component; a specific silane coupling agent, i.e., a bis(alkoxysilylalkyl)polysulfide having a polysulfide chain in which the distribution of sulfur is specified, in an amount of 1 to 20% by weight of the amount of silica; and carbon black, the sum of the amount of silica and carbon black being 60 to 130 parts by weight per 100 parts by weight of the rubber component. The pneumatic tire has excellent wet skid resistance, excellent grip performance on a dry road surface, and excellent abrasion resistance.