In this study, the difference in oxidative capacity for removing antibiotics and the mechanism between the Cu(II)/peroxymonosulfate (PMS)/UV and Cu(II)/persulfate (PDS)/UV systems were compared under various conditions. The optimal Cu(II) concentration in the Cu(II)/PMS/UV system was 30 μM, and in the Cu(II)/PDS/UV system was 50 μM. With the PMS or PDS concentration increasing, higher tetracycline (TC) degradation in these two systems occurred. Investigation on the mechanism revealed that •OH was the primary radical in the Cu(II)/PMS/UV system, while SO4 -• was the primary radical in the Cu(II)/PDS/UV system where •OH also played an important role. In these two systems, it was observed that Cu(I) was generated by PMS or PDS activated via UV illumination; however, oxygen alone could not promote TC removal. The degradation of TC was increased with the increasing pH level. In addition, TC degradation in the Cu(II)/PMS/UV system followed the pseudo-first-order kinetics model during the entire reaction period. It was found that the TC degradation kinetics in the Cu(II)/PDS/UV system can be divided into two parts (0 to 7 min and 10 to 50 min) and these two parts had good agreement with the pseudo-first-order kinetics model, respectively.