GreenSeeker (GS) sensor-based precision N management strategy for rice has been developed, significantly improved N fertilizer use efficiency. Crop Circle ACS-470 (CC) active sensor is a new user configurable sensor, with a choice of 6 possible bands. The objectives of this study were to identify important vegetation indices obtained from CC sensor for estimating rice yield potential and rice responsiveness to topdressing N application and evaluate their potential improvements over GS normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) and ration vegetation index (RVI). Two site-years of field N rate experiments were conducted from 2012 to 2013 to evaluate the in-season N requirement prediction developed by Oklahoma State University in Jiansanjiang Experiment Station of China Agricultural University. The GS and CC active canopy sensor with green, red edge and near infrared bands was used to collect rice canopy reflectance data at stem elongation stages. The results indicated that the CC active multispectral canopy sensor had a better performance than GS for estimating rice yield potential and responsiveness to topdressing N application at stem elongation stage. More studies are needed to further evaluate CC sensor-based precision N management strategy as compared with GS active sensor-based precision N management strategy under diverse on-farm conditions.