Increasing evidence indicated that inflammatory biomarkers, including neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio (NLR), platelet to lymphocyte ratio (PLR), and prognostic nutritional index (PNI), can be used as prognostic indicators in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC). However, which is the best predictor for prognosis in ESCC remain controversial. Few studies focused on the association between inflammatory biomarkers and postoperative chemotherapy. A cohort of 515 non-metastatic ESCC patients was reviewed retrospectively. Harrell's concordance index (c-index) was used to identify the optimal cut-off values of inflammatory markers and compare their prognostic value. Cox multivariate analysis indicated that, among these inflammatory biomarkers, PLR (≥133 vs. <133) was the only independent prognostic factor for poor OS [hazard ratio (HR) = 1.370, 95% confidence intervals (CI) = 1.076-1.745, p = .011)]. The c-index values of PLR were higher compared with NLR and PNI. For patients with PLR < 133, the group of surgery plus chemotherapy has significantly longer OS than surgery alone (p = .004), but this significant difference of OS between these two groups cannot be observed in patients with PLR ≥ 133 (p = .624). PLR is a predictive marker of prognosis and therapeutic effect of postoperative chemotherapy in non-metastatic ESCC.