Drug-resistant tuberculosis (DR-TB) is a worldwide global burden and related to poor treatment outcomes. Monitoring the progress of DR-TB treatment can be carried out microscopic with Acid-Fast Bacilli (AFB) sputum smear and assessed from the beginning or the first time the patient is diagnosed and monthly to determine the sequential conversion of AFB baseline to the next month twice until it becomes negative. The prolonged conversion has been associated with infectiousness and treatment outcomes. This study was aimed to determine the correlation between positivity of AFB sputum and time to conversion in DR-TB patients with short-term treatment (STR) regimen. An analytic retrospective at hospital collected from medical records of DR-TB patients, from September 2017 to July 2018. Spearman technique was used to analyze the data with p < 0.05. From the total of 151 DR-TB patients on STR regimen, 51 patients were enrolled consisting of 30 (58.8%) males and 21 (41.2%) females with ages average were 51 ± 12.9 years old. Overall, 39 (76.5%) patients had time of AFB conversion in the first month, 9 (17.6%) patients in the second months, 2 (3.9%) patients in the third months, and 1 (2%) patient in the fourth months. Among those patients, 26 (51%) patients had completed the treatment outcomes, 22 (43.1%) were loss to follow-up, 1 (2%) patient had the treatment failure, and 2 (3.9%) were died. There was no significant correlation between AFB sputum baseline (Scanty, 1+, 2+, 3+) with the time to sputum conversion (p > 0.05). AFB sputum have significant correlation with time of culture conversion (p < 0.05), and treatment compliance was not associated with time of AFB sputum conversion (p > 0.05). There was no significant relation between positivity of AFB baseline and time to sputum conversion in DR-TB patients on short-term treatment (STR) regimen. AFB sputum have significant correlation with time of culture conversion in DR-TB patients on short-term treatment (STR) regimen.