The effect of different failure criteria and settlement control requirements on the reliability analysis of foundation piles was studied. The bias factor defined with respect to the s-lgt failure criterion was introduced to each of the seven failure criteria collected. The synthetic reliability analysis method with consideration of different failure criteria, model uncertainties and settlement control requirements was presented by using model factors for ultimate limit state (ULS) and serviceability limit state (SLS). Finally, the impact of the randomness of limiting tolerable settlement of pile head on reliability analysis was studied. The following conclusions are drawn. First, variation of settlement control requirements has a great influence on reliability index while does not create a change of the ranking of reliability levels based on seven failure criteria. Second, reliability index increases with the limiting tolerable settlement although the increase rate gradually diminishes, which is independent of failure criterion. Third, there is a close correlation between the evaluation principles of foundation pile reliability for ULS and SLS. Therefore, this study recommends the combination of failure criteria and settlement control requirements for the comprehensive assessment of foundation pile reliability.