This paper considers the guaranteed cost control (GCC) problem for a class of uncertain nonlinear systems with states time-delay. The Lyapunov stability theory and the LMI approach are applied to design a guaranteed cost control law, which results in the closed-loop system is asymptotically stable and the system’s performance index less than a determinate super bound. Furthermore, a convex optimization problem with LMI constraints is formulated to design the optimal guaranteed cost controller for minimizing the performance index of the closed-loop uncertain systems. Finally, simulation results show the validity of the proposed control algorithm. Key words: nonlinear systems; guaranteed cost control; time-delay, LMI