Pile is one of the oldest alternatives of support of structures but its designis still considered a challenge for the ground engineering,being based on empirical principles. Piles are slender elements of great relative length, generally used when soils that compose the most superficial layers of the soil profile are not sufficiently resistant to support the loads from superstructure. The bearing capacity of piles can be estimated by empirical and theoretical approaches. For application of a theoretical approach a more detailed knowledge is necessary about the geometry of the problem, the tension x deformation x resistence soil satate, interface soil-pile characteristics and others, while for empirica approaches the application is generally done on the basis of field test results. The empirical formulations are the most usual in the practice of the engineering for the calculation of the bearing capacity of piles since theoretical approaches have iots application restricted. In brazilian engineering practice, the projects of foundations are elaborated frequently on the basis of SPT test results, being the two approachesd more utilized proposed by Aoki and Velloso (1975) and Décourt and Quaresma (1978, 1982). The objective of this work is compare some of the methodologies currently utilized to obtain the bearing capacity of the piles under axial loading with the results obtained in theoretical analysis by finite element approach, using Plaxis verion 8.0 software.