H₂ is the second most abundant reducing gas and has a certain greenhouse effect. We conducted the spatial distribution, sources and sinks of H₂ in the East Indian Ocean during September to November 2020. The concentration of H₂ in the surface seawater ranged from 2.75 to 21.96 nmol·L^-1, with means of 6.27 ± 3.76 nmol·L^-1. The distribution of H₂ in the study area was influenced by terrestrial input and current systems. The ratio of H₂ photo-production efficiency (normalized by solar radiation) under UV and PAR was 45: 1 and 19: 1 in the surface water of the Bay of Bengal and the East Indian equatorial ocean, respectively, which indicated that the terrestrial organic matter had higher efficiency of H₂ photo-production. When considering the actual photo-production rates, the contributions of UV and PAR were roughly equal in the surface seawater, while they contributed about 31% and 69% to H₂ photo-production in the mixed layer, respectively. The average flux of microbial consumption and sea-to-air exchange were 226 ± 163 μmol·m^-2·h^-1 and 0.18 ± 0.16 μmol·m^-2·h^-1, respectively, suggesting that microbial consumption was the dominant removal pathway of H₂ in the study area. Considering the budget of H₂ in the entire mixed layer, the photo-production could maintain about 30% of total removal of H₂.