In the present study, the recovery of ammonium ions from landfill leachate of municipal solid waste was investigated using four ion exchange resins: Amberlyst 15 Wet (strong acid cation), Lewatit VPOC1800 (strong acid cation), Dowex MAC-3 (weak acid cation) and Purolite MN 250 (without acid or basic functional group). The studies of sorption were conducted under batch conditions. The maximum sorption capacities q (e) (mg g(-1)) to ammonium ions of the different cationic resins were: Amberlyst 15 Wet: 74.1; Lewatit VPOC1800: 71.4; Dowex Mac-3: 0.1. The resin Purolite MN 250 without functional group also was available but it was not efficient to remove ammonium ions from landfill leachate. For the best resin-Amberlyst 15 Wet-studies of equilibrium and kinetic of the sorption were also performed. The Freundlich model was more adequate to describe the ion exchange equilibrium and the sorption mechanism fit the pseudo-second-order kinetic model for these resins. This resin was efficient to removal around 80 % of ammonium ion present in real leachate landfill and its regeneration with sulphuric acid produced a solution of ammonium sulphate with a recovery of 70 %.