The effects of cosurfactant on silica nanoparticles were investigated in systems containing surfactant, oil and aqueous ammonia solution where nanoparticles were prepared using a single phase water-in-oil (W/O) microemulsion. For the same oil phase, a single phase region was dependent on the interaction between surfactant and oil. For the cyclohexane system, NP-5 surfactant showed a wider single phase region than NP-4. The addition of n-propanol as a cosurfactant resulted in an increase or a decrease of a single phase W/O microemulsion region depending on the continuous oil phase. For both cyclohexane and isooctane systems, the addition of n-propanol resulted in a decrease in the single phase region. On the other hand, for n-heptane system, the addition of n-propanol expanded a single phase W/O microemulsion region. Silica nanoparticles prepared within a single phase region showed that relatively large number of particles of irregular shape were obtained with the addition of n-propanol to NP surfactant system. The addition of npropanol to LA-5 surfactant and n-heptane system produced a decrease in average particle size and an increase in the number of particles formed due to a decrease in the intermicellar exchange rate among microemulsion droplets.