Near-stoichiometric zirconium-doped lithium niobate crystals were fabricated and their optical damage resistance was investigated. It was found that these crystals can withstand a light intensity of 20 MW/cm2 at 514.5 nm cw laser, 80 GW/cm2 at 532 nm pulse laser, and 120 kW/cm2 at 351 nm cw laser. The minimum switching field is only 1.00 kV/mm for 0.5 mol% zirconium-doped lithium niobate crystal. These properties suggest that the near-stoichiometric zirconium-doped lithium niobate crystals will be an excellent candidate for quasi-phase matching technique.