Dysregulation of miRNA expression plays an important role in cancer development, and circulating miRNAs are biomarkers of several cancers. We explored whether the miRNAs in plasma could be useful clinical biomarkers for multiple myeloma. miRNA microarray was conducted to identify elevation of four miRNAs and reduced levels of eight miRNAs in the plasma of nine multiple myeloma patients and seven healthy controls. Increased miR-483-5p levels and decreased miR-20a were further validated in the plasma of 40 myeloma patients and 20 healthy controls using TaqMan quantitative real-time PCR. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis revealed that miR-483-5p and miR-20a had considerable diagnostic accuracy, yielding the areas under the ROC curve of 0.745 (sensitivity 58%, specificity 90%) and 0.74 (sensitivity 63%, specificity 85%), respectively. Plasma levels of miR-483-5p were associated with ISS staging. Within 14 months of diagnosis, the median progression-free survival of patients with high levels of plasma miR-483-5p was 15 months, in comparison with 21 months for patients with low levels of plasma miR-483-5p (p=0.025). However, miR-20a levels were not correlated with progression-free survival (p>0.05). miR-483-5p has the potential to be a predictor of myeloma survival.