The surface/subsurface damage is generated inevitably in grinding glass-ceramics. In this study,the surface topography,surface/subsurface damage characteristics and material removal mechanism of glass-ceramics ground by diamond wheels with different abrasive sizes of 500#,1 500#,2 000# and 5 000# are investigated. The surface/subsurface damage characteristics of glass-ceramics in brittle-mode grinding and ductile-mode grinding respectively are revealed,and a high-efficiency and low-damage ultra-precision grinding process of glass-ceramics by stages using 500# diamond wheel for rough grinding and 5 000# diamond wheel for fine grinding is proposed. The experiment results show that the material is removed in brittle mode when glass-ceramics are ground by 500 #and 1 500# diamond wheels,in both brittle mode and ductile mode when ground by 2 000# diamond wheel,and in ductile mode when ground by 5 000# diamond wheel. In the brittle-mode grinding of glass-ceramics,the surface damage consists of pits,microcracks and deep scratches,and the subsurface damage takes the form of microcracks. But in the ductile mode grinding of glass-ceramics,the surface damage has only micro-scratches,and subsurface damage is the plastic flow of workpiece material closed to the ground surface.