Qualification for the women's ice hockey tournament at the 2026 Winter Olympics was determined by the IIHF World Ranking following the 2024 Women's Ice Hockey World Championships. The host along with the top six teams in the world ranking received automatic berths into the Olympics, while all other teams had an opportunity to qualify for the remaining three spots.

Qualified teams {| class="wikitable" !Event !Date !Location !Vacancies !Qualified |- |Hosts||colspan=2 ||align=center|1 || |- |2024 IIHF World Ranking |14 April 2024 | |align=center|5

|rowspan=3|Final qualification tournaments |rowspan=3|6 – 9 February 2025 | Tomakomai |align=center|2

| Gävle |align=center|1

| Bremerhaven |align=center|1

! Total !! colspan=2| !! 10 !!

Notes

Qualification seeding To qualify directly, a nation had to be ranked in the top six following the 2024 Women's Ice Hockey World Championships. In the IIHF World Ranking system, ranking points from the most recent year are weighted at full value, and points from each preceding year are worth 25% less. The table below represents the standings of the 45 current participants, and Russia (whose status is yet to be determined).

    Qualified directly to Olympic tournament     Entered in Final Olympic qualification     Entered in Round 2     Entered in Round 1 (cancelled)     Did not enter Olympic qualification

Qualifying seedTeamWC2024(100%)WC2023(75%)WC2022(50%)OLY2022(50%)WC2021(25%)Total 1 1600 1560 1200 1200 1200 4270 2 1560 1600 1160 1160 1160 4210 3 1520 1460 1040 1120 1120 3975 4 1500 1520 1120 1020 1020 3965 5 1460 1500 1100 1100 1100 3960 6 1440 1460 1100 1060 1060 3880 7 1400 1420 1060 1040 1040 3775 8 1420 1440 1020 1000 960 3750 9 1440 1400 960 860 1000 3650 10 1300 1360 1000 920 960 3520 11 1340 1300 940 940 940 3490 12 1360 1320 820 960 740 3425 13 1280 1340 920 880 920 3415 14 1320 1240 900 840 880 3340 15 1260 1280 860 900 860 3315 16 1200 1220 880 820 840 3175 17 1240 1260 840 740 780 3170 18 1220 1200 740 780 800 3080 Host 1160 1160 780 800 820 3025 19 1100 1180 800 760 760 2955 20 1140 1120 700 720 660 2855 21 1120 1140 720 680 680 2845 22 1080 1100 760 660 720 2795 23 1060 1060 660 700 640 2695 24 1040 1040 620 640 620 2605 25 1020 1020 640 620 540 2550 26 1180 1080 680 0 700 2505 27 1000 1000 580 600 520 2470 28 880 860 540 580 580 2230 920 840 360 560 460 2125 940 940 560 0 560 2065 980 960 460 0 400 2030 900 920 540 0 500 1985 29 800 800 440 520 340 1965 860 900 520 0 420 1900 30 740 760 420 540 360 1880 31 760 880 500 0 480 1790 840 820 460 0 380 1780 32 820 780 420 0 440 1725 33 700 740 340 0 320 1505 34 780 720 320 0 0 1480 960 0 620 0 600 1420 640 680 300 0 300 1375 680 700 280 0 0 1345 35 720 0 0 0 0 720 660 0 0 0 0 660

Olympic qualification Round 1 This round was canceled. It was meant to take place between 7–10 November 2024, and consist of three groups of teams ranked 25th or lower. Teams entered in Group A were Chinese Taipei, Bulgaria and Croatia; teams in Group B were Latvia, Lithuania, Romania and Thailand; and teams in Group C were Iceland, Turkey, Estonia and Serbia.

The three highest ranked teams, Chinese Taipei, Latvia and Iceland, advanced to Round 2.

Olympic qualification Round 2 Twelve countries played in three tournaments from 12 to 15 December 2024, involving nations ranked 16th to 24th and those who advanced from Round 1 (named Qualifier 4, 5, and 6). If nations declined to participate then those ranked lower moved up to fill their place.

Group D

The tournament was held in Piešťany, Slovakia.

All times are local (UTC+1).

Group E

The tournament was held in Sheffield, Great Britain.

All times are local (UTC±0).

Group F

The tournament was held in Bytom, Poland.

All times are local (UTC+1).

Final Olympic qualification Twelve countries played in three tournaments from 6 to 9 February 2025 involving nations ranked 7th to 15th, and the three winners of the Round 2 tournaments. The winners advanced to the Olympic tournament and played in group B.

Group G

This tournament took place in Tomakomai, Japan.

All times are local (UTC+9).

Group H

This tournament took place in Gävle, Sweden.

All times are local (UTC+1).

Group I

The tournament took place at in Bremerhaven, Germany.

All times are local (UTC+1).

References