A method using a Soleris real-time optoelectronic microbial detection system was developed for the rapid determination of the total bacterial count in raw milk and compared with the conventional aerobic plate count method (APC) in this paper. The standard curve equation of the Soleris method was established as follows: y = ?0.651 5x + 8.263 9, where y is total bacterial count (lg (CFU/mL)) and x is detection time (h) (R2 = ? 0.939 6) and it was verified to have good correlation. Repeatability tests showed relative standard deviation (RSD) values less than 5%. No statistically significant difference was observed comparing the two methods (P > 0.05). Under the experimental conditions in this study, it took 0.9–11.8 h to analyze one sample using the Soleris method, which was greatly shortened compared with that (48 h) using APC. Furthermore, the Soleris method was simple and rapid and allowed simultaneous detection of 128 samples. Accordingly, it could be considered as an efficient and stable method for the rapid determination of the total bacterial count in raw milk.