The effect of exchange-coupling interaction on the effective anisotropy and its varying tendency in nanocrystalline single-phase NdFeB permanent magnetic material have been investigated. The results show that the exchange-coupling interaction between grains makes the effective anisotropy of material, Keff, decrease with the reduction of grain size. The variation of Keff is basically the same as that of coercivity. The decrease in effective anisotropy is the main reason of the reduction of coercivity for nanocrystalline single-phase NdFeB permanent magnetic material. In order to get high anisotropy and coercivity in nanocrystalline single-phase NdFeB permanent material, the grain size should be larger than 35 nm.