Abstract: 【Purpose/significance】To explore the time value perception discrepancy of different substitutes in surrogate health informa⁃ tion seeking behavior to provide a basis for improving online health information services.【Method/process】A scenario experiment was designed based on the mental accounting theory, using exploratory factor analysis, descriptive statistics, and significance tests to reveal the causes, changing rules, and behavioral effects of users' time value perception discrepancy in surrogate health information seeking behavior.【Result/conclusion】There is an time value perception discrepancy when users seek health information for different people. The reason for this unreasonable phenomenon is that users psychologically set up separate accounts (relatives or non-relatives ac⁃ count) for seeking information for other people, and the perceived time value of the relatives' account was significantly higher than that of the non-relatives' account; The perceived time value in the two types of accounts display diminishing sensitivity with the increase of lost time. The type of accounts significantly influences the subsequent allocation of saved time.【Innovation/limitation】From the per⁃ spective of time perception and allocation, this paper studies the unreasonable time decision-making behavior during surrogate health information seeking , and reveals the gap between actual perception and rational perception, which provides a new reference for the follow-up research in the field of health information alternative search behavior, helping the health information service platform and users understand the unreasonable behavior in health information replacement search, guide users to avoid unreasonable time alloca⁃ tion behavior, and guide the platform to improve information services.