Abstract: This paper discusses the extensions of the energy method of slope stability to bearing capacity analysis.The basic principles developed by Donald and Chen (1995) have been reviewed,which showed that the new method can give answers as accurate as closed form solutions.The results given by this numerical approach were compared with those obtained by the conventional methods.It has been found that the bearing capacities calculated by empirical methods with non zero foundation soil gravity in most cases have been underestimated.The traditional empirical methods for embedded footings and eccentrical loadings also underestimate the ultimate load by 5%-10%,compared with those given by the numerical method.