diff --git a/paddle/gserver/layers/L2DistanceLayer.cpp b/paddle/gserver/layers/L2DistanceLayer.cpp
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..e76e29cbe517a2b6bf4e3b67399572c2359feeb2
--- /dev/null
+++ b/paddle/gserver/layers/L2DistanceLayer.cpp
@@ -0,0 +1,92 @@
+/* Copyright (c) 2016 PaddlePaddle Authors. All Rights Reserve.
+
+Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
+you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+You may obtain a copy of the License at
+
+    http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+
+Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+limitations under the License. */
+
+#include "L2DistanceLayer.h"
+#include "paddle/utils/Logging.h"
+#include "paddle/utils/Stat.h"
+
+namespace paddle {
+
+REGISTER_LAYER(l2_distance, L2DistanceLayer);
+
+bool L2DistanceLayer::init(const LayerMap& layerMap,
+                           const ParameterMap& parameterMap) {
+  /* Initialize the basic parent class */
+  Layer::init(layerMap, parameterMap);
+
+  CHECK_EQ(inputLayers_.size(), 2UL) << "The L2 distance layer accepts two and "
+                                     << "only two inputs.";
+  CHECK_EQ(getSize(), 1UL) << "The output dimensionality of L2 distance"
+                           << "is fixed to be 1.";
+
+  return true;
+}
+
+void L2DistanceLayer::forward(PassType passType) {
+  Layer::forward(passType);
+
+  const auto inV1 = getInputValue(0);
+  const auto inV2 = getInputValue(1);
+
+  CHECK(inV1 && inV2);
+  CHECK_EQ(inV1->getHeight(), inV2->getHeight())
+      << "The height of two inputs to this layer must be the same.";
+  CHECK_EQ(inV1->getWidth(), inV2->getWidth())
+      << "The width of two inputs to this layer must be the same.";
+
+  int batchSize = inV1->getHeight();
+  int output_dim = getSize();
+  {
+    REGISTER_TIMER_INFO("L2DistanceBpAtvTimer", getName().c_str());
+    reserveOutput(batchSize, output_dim);
+    auto outV = getOutputValue();
+    CHECK(outV) << "The output matrix should not be null.";
+
+    Matrix::resizeOrCreate(
+        inputSub_, inV1->getHeight(), inV1->getWidth(), false, useGpu_);
+
+    inputSub_->assign(*inV1);
+    inputSub_->sub(*inV2);
+    outV->sumOfProducts(*inputSub_, *inputSub_, 1, 0);
+    outV->sqrt2(*outV);
+  }
+}
+
+void L2DistanceLayer::backward(const UpdateCallback& callback) {
+  const auto outG = getOutputGrad();
+  const auto outV = getOutputValue();
+  const auto inV1 = getInputValue(0);
+  const auto inV2 = getInputValue(1);
+  auto inGrad1 = getInputGrad(0);
+  auto inGrad2 = getInputGrad(1);
+  CHECK(outG && outV && inV1 && inV2 && inGrad1 && inGrad2);
+
+  {
+    REGISTER_TIMER_INFO("L2DistanceBpAtvTimer", getName().c_str());
+
+    outV->scalarDiv(*outV, 1.);
+    outV->dotMul(*outG, *outV);
+
+    if (inGrad1) {
+      inGrad1->addRowScale(0, *inputSub_, *outV);
+    }
+
+    if (inGrad2) {
+      inputSub_->mulScalar(-1.);
+      inGrad2->addRowScale(0, *inputSub_, *outV);
+    }
+  }
+}
+
+}  // namespace paddle
diff --git a/paddle/gserver/layers/L2DistanceLayer.h b/paddle/gserver/layers/L2DistanceLayer.h
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..64731db2bf2f7c13dbb5e20b8110cb7b078ac132
--- /dev/null
+++ b/paddle/gserver/layers/L2DistanceLayer.h
@@ -0,0 +1,53 @@
+/* Copyright (c) 2016 PaddlePaddle Authors. All Rights Reserve.
+
+Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
+you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+You may obtain a copy of the License at
+
+    http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+
+Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+limitations under the License. */
+
+#pragma once
+
+#include "Layer.h"
+#include "paddle/math/Matrix.h"
+#include "paddle/utils/ThreadLocal.h"
+
+namespace paddle {
+
+/**
+ * @brief A layer for calculating l2 distance between the two input vectors.
+ * \f[
+ * f(\bf{x}, \bf{y}) = \sqrt{\sum_{i=1}^D(x_i - y_i)}
+ * \f]
+ *
+ * - Input1: A vector (batchSize * dataDim)
+ * - Input2: A vector (batchSize * dataDim)
+ * - Output: A vector (batchSize * 1)
+ *
+ * The config file api is l2_distance.
+ */
+
+class L2DistanceLayer : public Layer {
+public:
+  explicit L2DistanceLayer(const LayerConfig& config) : Layer(config) {}
+
+  ~L2DistanceLayer() {}
+
+  bool init(const LayerMap& layerMap,
+            const ParameterMap& parameterMap) override;
+
+  void forward(PassType passType) override;
+  void backward(const UpdateCallback& callback = nullptr) override;
+
+private:
+  // Store result of subtracting Input2 from Input1.
+  MatrixPtr inputSub_;
+};
+
+}  // namespace paddle
diff --git a/paddle/gserver/tests/test_LayerGrad.cpp b/paddle/gserver/tests/test_LayerGrad.cpp
index 3517d293e3c901caaa19952b04e56d1ef0d2b46e..18f8d602b223cb4f2f620417862264776e752620 100644
--- a/paddle/gserver/tests/test_LayerGrad.cpp
+++ b/paddle/gserver/tests/test_LayerGrad.cpp
@@ -583,6 +583,7 @@ TEST(Layer, maxoutLayer) {
     testLayerGrad(config, "maxout", 10, false, useGpu);
   }
 }
+
 void testFcLayer(string format, size_t nnz) {
   TestConfig config;
   config.biasSize = 1024;
@@ -2429,6 +2430,25 @@ TEST(Layer, ScaleSubRegionLayer) {
   }
 }
 
+TEST(Layer, L2DistanceLayer) {
+  TestConfig config;
+  config.layerConfig.set_type("l2_distance");
+  config.layerConfig.set_size(1);
+  config.biasSize = 0;
+
+  const size_t input_dim = 27;
+  const size_t batch_size = 11;
+
+  config.inputDefs.push_back({INPUT_DATA, "layer_0", input_dim, 0});
+  config.inputDefs.push_back({INPUT_DATA, "layer_1", input_dim, 0});
+  config.layerConfig.add_inputs();
+  config.layerConfig.add_inputs();
+
+  for (auto useGpu : {false, true}) {
+    testLayerGrad(config, "l2_distance", batch_size, false, useGpu);
+  }
+}
+
 int main(int argc, char** argv) {
   testing::InitGoogleTest(&argc, argv);
   initMain(argc, argv);