Objective To investigate the effect of postoperative transarterial chemoembolization (TACE) for huge intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (ICC). Methods Data of 125 huge ICC (diameter ≥10 cm) patients with surgical treatment treated with or without TACE (TACE group 35 cases, and non-TACE group 90 cases) between January 2009 and December 2013 were analyzed retrospectively. Both recurrence rate and overall survival (OS) rate were analyzed using the Kaplan-Meier method and the difference using Log-Rank test. Cox regression analysis was used to explore the independent risk factors of postoperative recurrence and OS. Propensity score matching was used to reduce the difference between groups. Subgroup analysis was done for benefited patients from TACE based on the 8th TNM staging of ICC. Results TACE group had similar recurrence and OS with non-TACE group. 5-year recurrence rate and OS rate were 85.7% vs. 84.4%, P=0.487; 22.9% vs. 20.0%, P=0.426, respectively. After 1∶1 propensity score matching with 33 cases each group, there was no significant difference between two groups (P=0.114 for recurrence, P=0.197 for OS). According to TNM sta-ging, there were 61 cases in stage Ⅰ and 64 cases in stage Ⅱ. Staging analysis showed that TACE group and non-TACE groups yielded similar recurrence and OS in patients with stage Ⅰ. However, for patients in stage Ⅱ, TACE group had lower recurrence rate (91.7% vs. 97.5%, P=0.022) and higher OS rate (12.5% vs. 2.5%, P=0.002). After adjustment for multiple tumors, vascular invasion, and CEA ≥5 μg/L, TACE was independent risk factor of recurrence (hazard ratio: 0.564, 95%CI: 0.327-0.974) and OS (hazard ratio: 0.449, 95%CI: 0.259-0.777) in patients with stage Ⅱ. Conclusions For patients with huge ICC, postoperative TACE may improve the prognosis of patients with TNM stage Ⅱ.