Abstract The measured O Kα X-ray emission spectrum of the high-Tc superconductor Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8-x is compared with a spectrum based on local density band structure calculations. By taking also into account the shape of the measured O 1s X-ray photoelectron spectrum an energy level diagram for the O 1s core-level binding energies of the three different oxygen sites is constructed. The O 1s binding energy in the Bi2O2-layers is found to be about the same as that one in the SrO-layers, whereas the binding energy in the CuO2-layers is lower by about 0.5 eV.