Intrinsic bistability in a resonant tunneling diode has been investigated theoretically using a modified resonant tunneling model. A self‐consistent solution including feedback of charges in the quantum well is found through an iterative method, where the stable and unstable solutions can be easily identified. The intrinsic bistability corresponds to the existence of two stable solutions. We find that scattering will reduce the intrinsic bistability or completely eliminate it, even for a large current peak‐to‐valley ratio (about 19).