With the innovation of remote sensing technology, remote sensing data sources are more and more abundant. The main aim of this study was to analyze retrieval accuracy of soybean leaf area index (LAI) based on multi-source remote sensing data including ground hyperspectral, unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) multispectral and the Gaofen-1 (GF-1) WFV data. Ratio vegetation index (RVI), normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), soil-adjusted vegetation index (SAVI), difference vegetation index (DVI), and triangle vegetation index (TVI) were used to establish LAI retrieval models, respectively. The models with the highest calibration accuracy were used in the validation. The capability of these three kinds of remote sensing data for LAI retrieval was assessed according to the estimation accuracy of models. The experimental results showed that the models based on the ground hyperspectral and UAV multispectral data got better estimation accuracy (R² was more than 0.69 and RMSE was less than 0.4 at 0.01 significance level), compared with the model based on WFV data. The RVI logarithmic model based on ground hyperspectral data was little superior to the NDVI linear model based on UAV multispectral data (The difference in E(A), R² and RMSE were 0.3%, 0.04 and 0.006, respectively). The models based on WFV data got the lowest estimation accuracy with R2 less than 0.30 and RMSE more than 0.70. The effects of sensor spectral response characteristics, sensor geometric location and spatial resolution on the soybean LAI retrieval were discussed. The results demonstrated that ground hyperspectral data were advantageous but not prominent over traditional multispectral data in soybean LAI retrieval. WFV imagery with 16 m spatial resolution could not meet the requirements of crop growth monitoring at field scale. Under the condition of ensuring the high precision in retrieving soybean LAI and working efficiently, the approach to acquiring agricultural information by UAV remote sensing could yet be regarded as an optimal plan. Therefore, in the case of more and more available remote sensing information sources, agricultural UAV remote sensing could become an important information resource for guiding field-scale crop management and provide more scientific and accurate information for precision agriculture research.