<p>Worm wheel gear grinding is an important process of hard gear tooth and the tooth surface accuracy is a key index to measure the technical level of gear grinding. The electronic gearbox(EGB) in gear machining system is the core to realize multi-axis linkage of machine tool. This paper proposes an intelligent compensation method for grinding error of worm grinding wheel based on EGB. Firstly, the mathematical model of worm wheel dressing and gear grinding are established according to the principles of grinding process and gear meshing principle. Secondly, the decoupling formula for compensation amount of each motion axis corresponding to tooth surface error was derived using inverse kinematics methods, transforming complex tooth surface error to specific compensation values for motion axis. Subsequently, an EGB control model for tooth surface error compensation was constructed, enabling effective error compensation control. Finally, the tooth surface error compensation simulation is carried out and experiments are conducted on machine tool equipped with Siemens 840Dsl system. Both simulation and experimental results demonstrate this compensation method effectively improves the tooth surface accuracy of worm gear grinding and has practical application value.</p> Graphical abstract <p></p>