Reduced reaction mechanisms for methanol-air diffusion fiames are developed by systematic reduction of a skeletal mechanism. By examining the magnitude of the net production rates for the intermediate species, it is shown that for stagnation point diffusion flames the steady state assumption is reasonable for CH2OH, HCO, O, OH, H02, and H2O2, but not for CH2O. By eliminating these species from the skeletal mechanism, a five-step reduced mechanism is derived