There is provided a charged particle beam apparatus that includes a trajectory monitoring unit which is disposed above an objective lens (14) and which includes an optical element (12) having a lens action and a trajectory correcting deflector (10). An applied voltage and an excitation current of the optical element (12) are set to zero after a trajectory correction of a primary charged particle beam (30). Accordingly, the lens action and an aberration of the optical element (12) have no influence on resolution.