The effective drainage radius of coal seam is an important basis for the spacing of pre-drainage gas boreholes. To quickly and accurately determine the effective drainage radius, a new method was proposed. For the coal face where the desorbable gas content before mining has met the standard, the compliance of mine gas drainage rate was used as the basis to determine the effective drainage radius. The fluid-structure interaction model was constructed, numerical simulation of coal seam gas drainage was carried out by using COMSOL software, and the model was validated by combining the field test results. The results show that the new method has the advantage of short cycle. With the extension of drainage time, the increase of effective drainage radius gradually decreases, and finally reaches a relatively stable limit value, which conforms to the Langmuir function. The average error between numerical simulation and field test values of effective drainage radius is 4.9%, which proves that the model is reliable. This model can accurately predict the effective drainage radius under different coal seam gas contents and drainage times. The research results provide a new mean for determining the effective drainage radius of coal seam and the layout of gas drainage boreholes.