Title: Comparison of Boundary and Finite Element Based Cathodic Protection Models AbstractA cathodic protection (CP) model is a useful tool to analyze various scenarios such as corrosion of cased pipeline segments. The CP model can be developed using various mathematical methods including boundary and finite element methods. The boundary element based CP models are most popular and are widely used in analyzing a CP system. However boundary element based CP models have limited flexibility to include variation in domain parameters such as changes in soil resistivity. On other hand finite element based CP models have ability to account for variation in the domain parameters. But the finite element based CP models are rarely used because of the following two reasons: (i) these models require explicit modeling of soil domain which is computationally expensive for long buried pipelines and (ii) the models are ambiguous about the remote field boundary conditions. This paper is prepared to provide a comparison between the CP models developed using the boundary and finite element methods. The paper will provide details of the model which are developed using the two mathematical methods. The paper will also provide a guideline for using the boundary and finite element based models under various scenarios.