Monitoring of the abrasive waterjet (AWJ) cutting process has become increasingly important. The present paper proposes a model for on-line depth of cut monitoring based on the acoustic emission (AE) response to the variation in AWJ depth of cut, instead of the expensive and impractical vertical cutting force monitoring. The main objective is to use the AE technique in order to predict the actual depth of cut in AWJ cutting under normal cutting conditions. It was found that the root mean square of the acoustic emission energy (AErms) increases linearly with an increase in the depth of cut and could be used for its on-line monitoring. The results show that the AE is the most suitable technique for AWJ monitoring, as the AE signal has high sensitivity to the variation in the depth of cut.