Poly(vinylidene) fluoride (PVDF) is a prototypical piezoelectric polymer, which exhibits a strong piezoelectricity after a poling treatment. In this work, we investigate the polarization behaviors of PVDF film under cyclic electric fields by measuring polarized currents. A compensation method is used to distinguish the polarized current from the capacitive and resistive currents. The PVDF samples with a thickness of 20 or 30 mu m and an electrode area of 3 x 3 or 4 x 4 mm(2) are employed, respectively. From the observations, we find that the electrode area does not affect the current density, but a thicker film has a higher residual polarization due to its larger fraction of effective switchable dipoles. The amplitude of the applied field primarily determines the residual polarization. Impressively, an alpha- to beta-phase transformation occurs above 225 MV center dot m(-1) and the polarized current reaches the maximum and becomes converges at 350 MV center dot m(-1). Moreover, a high degree and reproducible residual polarization is obtained through gradually increasing applied field from 50 to 350 MV center dot m(-1), and the relative standard deviation is 3.74% for 20 available samples. Furthermore, a dipole switching model is used to describe the polarization behaviors of PVDF with a form of f(E) = Ae(-B|E + C|) and the fitting parameters give a further illustration of polarization behaviors in PVDF. POLYM. ENG. SCI., 2020. (c) 2020 Society of Plastics Engineers