Cu, Ag and the Ni films on stainless steel bases and Ni film on Ti substrates are prepared by using electroplating. The cantilever beam method and X ray diffraction are used to measure the internal stresses in the films. Internal stresses caused by interfacial electron transfer are also calculated using the modified TFD model. It is shown that the calculated results are comparable with those of the experiments, indicating that the main source of the internal stress in the films is the interfacial electron transfer.