To provide a rubber composition for a tire tread that attains high gripping performances and steering stability and excellent abrasion resistance, and a pneumatic tire using the same.

The rubber composition for a tire tread comprises 100 pts.mass of a diene rubber comprising 60-90 pts.mass of a styrene-butadiene copolymer rubber having a glass transition temperature of -35 to 0°C and 10-40 pts.mass of a natural rubber, and incorporated therewith, 10-80 pts.mass of a low-molecular weight styrene-butadiene copolymer having a number-average molecular weight of 2,000-10,000, 10-50 pts.mass of a terpene phenol resin having a softening point of 125-170°C, 70-130 pts.mass of carbon black and 15-80 pts.mass of a softening agent and/or a plasticizer. The pneumatic tire has a tread (3) comprising the rubber composition.