A type of low-pass filter devices for soft x rays is investigated by using a microchannel plate (MCP) of small channels with square cross section. The measured transmission spectra on the Beijing Synchrotron Radiation Facility showed that the MCP has excellent bandpass effects below 1.5 keV by grazing incidence and internal multireflections. Combined with filters, the MCP energy bandwidth can be narrowed to 100 eV. In contrast to bandpass made of planar mirrors, the MCP has a much smaller size and better bandpass effects, and can be easily extended to high energy ranges. For low-resolution spectrometer applications of soft x rays, this method allows the monochromator to be replaced by a simple MCP filter and therefore significantly reduces alignment complexity in experiments.