Stingless bees are native to Brazil, which most of the species are concentrated in the North and Northeast regions. The honey produced by these bees is commonly used in folk medicine as well as in human food, besides having great importance to pollination. The honey from Melipona bees presents higher moisture content than the honey from Apis melifera, in addition to other nutritional characteristics. The most common native bees in the Brazilian semi-arid region are jandaíra (Melipona subnitida Ducke), uruçu (Melipona scutellaris Latrelle), mandaçaia (Melipona quadrifasciata), and cupira (Partamona cupira Smith). The objective of this work was to verify the antioxidant activity of honey from Melipona bees by the determination of total phenolic compounds and antioxidant activity by DPPH free radical assay. The honey from uruçú bees presented the highest content of total phenolic compounds, with 45.38 mg of gallic acid equivalents (mg GAE 100 g-1), followed by cupira, mandaçaia, and jandaíra with 32.51, 25.20, and 21.44 mg GAE 100 g-1, respectively. These values showed a positive correlation with the antioxidant activity of the free sequestrant radical DPPH with 11.43 mg 100 g-1 trolox equivalent to cupira honey, followed by uruçu, mandaçaia, and jandaíra of 8.96, 1.29, and 1.12 mg TE, 100 g-1, respectively. It was observed a variation in the antioxidant capacity according to the species of native bees studied. Given this, there is a clear source of antioxidants from stingless honey bees, especially cupira’s.