Abstract We have studied the scalar perturbation of charged dilaton black holes in 2+1 dimensions. The black hole considered here is a solution to the low-energy string theory in 2+1 dimensions. The exact decay rates and the grey body factors for the massless minimally coupled scalar is computed for both the charged and the uncharged dilaton black holes. The charged and the uncharged black hole show similar behavior for grey body factors, reflection coefficients and decay rates.