Surface roughness is an important factor that affects the wetting of molten metal on ceramics. The effect of surface roughness of the alumina substrate on the contact angle, contact diameter, drop height and surface tension of molten lead was investigated in the temperature range of 923-1123 K. The microstructure of the lead/substrate interface was observed by SEM. The surface free energy of alumina substrates was calculated by the geometrical average method. When the surface roughness of the substrate increased from 0.092 to 2.23 μm, the surface free energy increased gradually, ranging from 13.356 to 39.998 mJ/m². The contact diameter of lead droplets decreased from 9.111 to 7.19 mm. The lead drop height increased from 3.41 to 3.85 mm. The contact angle increased from 113.05° to 137.15°. Moreover, the surface depression of the alumina substrate was filled with lead, and no obvious change was observed. The results demonstrated that the wetting of lead drop on alumina substrates was consistent with the Wenzel state.