[3] This tournament also served as the first stage of Asian qualification for the 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup, with the top five teams of the final tournament qualifying for the World Cup.

[4] Of the 47 AFC member associations, a total of 24 teams entered the competition, with Japan, Australia, and China PR automatically qualified for the final tournament by their position as the top three teams of the 2014 AFC Women's Asian Cup and thus did not participate in the qualifying competition.

[5] The draw was held on 21 January 2017, 15:00 AST (UTC+2), at the Grand Hyatt in Amman, Jordan.

[5] The teams were seeded according to their performance in the 2014 AFC Women's Asian Cup final tournament and qualification.

The following restrictions were also applied:[8][9] In each group, teams played each other once at a centralised venue.