Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is a leading cause of blindness with very limited effective treatments. Although the pathogenesis of this disease being complex and not fully understood, the oxidative damage caused by excessive reactive oxygen species (ROS) in the retinal pigment epithelium (RPE), has been considered as a major cause. Autophagy is essential for the degradation of cellular components damaged by ROS and its dysregulation has been implicated in AMD pathogenesis. Therefore, strategies aiming to boost autophagy could be effective in protecting RPE cells from oxidative damage. Metformin is the first-line anti-type 2 diabetes drug and has been reported to stimulate autophagy in many tissues. We therefore hypothesized that metformin may be able to protect RPE cells against H2O2-induced oxidative damage by autophagy activation. In the present study, we found that metformin attenuated H2O2-induced cell viability loss, apoptosis, elevated ROS levels as well as the collapse of the mitochondria membrane potential in D407 cells. Autophagy was stimulated by metformin, and inhibition of autophagy by 3-Methyladenine and chloroquine or knockdown of Beclin1 and LC3B blocked the protective effects of metformin. In addition, we showed that metformin could activate the AMPK pathway, whereas both pharmacological and genetic inhibition of AMPK blocked the autophagy-stimulating and protective effects of metformin. Metformin conferred a similar protection against H2O2-induced oxidative damage in primary cultured human RPE cells. Taken together, these results demonstrate that metformin could protect RPE cells from H2O2-induced oxidative damage by stimulating autophagy via the activation of AMPK pathway, supporting its potential use in the prevention and treatment of AMD.