A production process for substituted phenylacetic acids or ester analogs thereof is disclosed. In this process toluene or toluene substituted with various substituents, an alcohol, an oxidant and carbon monoxide are used as raw materials to obtain compounds comprising structure of phenylacetic acid ester or analogs thereof by catalysis of the complex catalyst formed from transition metal and ligand, and such compounds are hydrolyzed to obtain various substituted phenylacetic acid based compounds. This type of compounds and their derivatives serve as important fine chemicals used widely in the industries of pharmaceuticals, pesticides, perfume and the like.