The isothermal section of Al-Co-Y ternary system at 1173 K has been determined experimentally, which contains 27 three-phase regions and 50 two-phase regions (27wider+23line). The existence of ternary compound τ5-AlCo2Y2 in this system has been confirmed and crystal structure was determined preliminarily. The intermetallic phases Co2Y, Co3Y, Co7Y2, Co5Y, Co17Y2, Al2Y, τ4-AlCoY and τ5-AlCo2Y2 were expressed as the formula of AlxCo2−xY, AlxCo3−xY, AlxCo7−xY2, AlxCo5−xY, AlxCo17−xY2, Al2−xCoxY, Al