Qitai County is located in the northeast of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, at the north foot of Tianshan Mountain, at the southeast edge of Junggar Basin. The county seat is 195 kilometers away from Urumqi City in the west. It is the border county of Changji Prefecture in Xinjiang. There is a state-level Class I port open to Mongolia - Ulastai Port. At the end of 2017, the total population of Qitai County was 239600.

Qitai County, with a total area of 19300 square kilometers, has jurisdiction over 9 towns and 6 townships, and is home to Qitai Central Farm and Beitashan Pasture of the Sixth Agricultural Division., Ethnic minorities account for 25% of the total population. There is the only Tatar nationality township in China.

Qitai County has more than 20 kinds of mineral resources, such as coal, granite, iron, gold, silver, copper, mirabilite, graphite, limestone, bentonite, perlite, etc.

In 2017, it was awarded the title of "National Garden County". In 2017, the GDP of Qitai County was 14.602 billion yuan.