Statins have been shown to reduce the risk of post-contrast acute kidney injury (PC-AKI) in patients undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). However, the preventive effect of rosuvastatin versus atorvastatin on PC-AKI in patients with ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) undergoing PCI remains unclear. Patients with STEMI undergoing PCI between January 2010 and May 2016 were consecutively enrolled. A total of 1300 included patients were divided into two groups according to the statin type (atorvastatin: n = 1040; rosuvastatin: n = 260). The primary endpoint was PC-AKI defined as an absolute increase of ≥ 0.5 mg/dL in the level of serum creatinine or an increase of ≥ 25 % over baseline within 48−72 h after contrast media exposure. In total, 245 (18.8 %) patients developed PC-AKI. The atorvastatin and rosuvastatin groups had similar rates of PC-AKI (19.1 % vs. 17.7 %, p = 0.595), in-hospital mortality (4.1 % vs. 3.8 %, p = 0.833), and major adverse clinical events (MACE). Multivariate logistic regression analysis revealed that rosuvastatin treatment had an effect similar to atorvastatin regarding PC-AKI (odds ratio [OR] = 0.97, 95 % confidence interval [CI], 0.66−1.43, p = 0.874). Propensity score analyses and subgroup analysis demonstrated similar results for PC-AKI. Kaplan-Meier survival curves and Cox proportional regression showed that the atorvastatin and rosuvastatin groups had no differences regarding follow-up mortality. Rosuvastatin exerted a similar preventive effect against PC-AKI and showed similar levels of in-hospital and follow-up all-cause mortality and in-hospital MACE compared with atorvastatin in patients with STEMI undergoing PCI.