Abstract: When analyzing the failure of multi row and multi column bolt joints in composite materials, the calculation of bolt load distribution is a key content. The existing stiffness method divides multi column joints into multiple single column joints, and obtains the bolt load distribution results of multiple rows of single column joints separately to obtain the results of the entire multi column bolt joint. When the clearance between different columns of bolts and holes in the same row is different, it will lead to significant calculation errors between the calculated results and the true bolt load of the composite bolted joint. In response to this issue, this article innovatively introduced the influence of inter column shear on the traditional stiffness method, proposed a three-dimensional spring beam stiffness model considering shear effects, and presented a simplified calculation method for shear stiffness, forming a stiffness method for calculating the bolt load distribution of composite material multi row and multi column bolt joints considering inter column shear. Composite material three row and three column bolt joints with different clearance distributions were designed, and the predicted bolt load distribution results of the three row and three column joints using existing methods and the method proposed in this paper were compared with the finite element method prediction results. The results show that the bolt loading coefficient predicted by our method is closer to the finite element results than existing methods, verifying the superiority of our method.