In order to improve the computational efficiency of the insulator electric field inverse problem, the fast multi-pole method has been introduced to the traditional simulation charge method. Tikhonov regularization is used to process the ill-posed characteristic of inverse problem solution caused by the interference. Newton method is used to search the optimum solution, and then the actual field source parameters of insulators and the practical voltage distribution on the surface of the insulators can be obtained. The fast optimization algorithm has been verified in point charge model. And 110 kV insulator string is carried out to demonstrate that the fast optimization algorithm is much faster and more efficient than traditional method.