Guangzhou Evergrande won the tournament after defeating Al-Ahli in the final.

[1] Western Sydney Wanderers were the defending champions, but they were eliminated in the group stage.

[3] The member associations are ranked based on their national team's and clubs' performance over the last four years in AFC competitions, with the allocation of slots for the 2015 and 2016 editions of the AFC club competitions determined by the 2014 rankings:[4] The AFC Competitions Committee finalised the slot allocation for the 2015 and 2016 editions of the AFC Champions League based on the criteria, including AFC's MA rankings and the implementation of club licensing regulations, on 28 November 2014.

The schedule of the competition was as follows (all draws were held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia).

The winners of each tie in the play-off round advanced to the group stage to join the 24 automatic qualifiers.

All losers in each round which were from associations with only play-off slots entered the 2015 AFC Cup group stage.

[16] Note: Goals scored in qualifying play-off not counted when determining top scorer (see regulations, Article 77.4).