A pole-number-changing rotating electric machine and a method for driving said pole-number-changing rotating electric machine are obtained, the pole-number-changing rotating electric machine having exceptional torque-current characteristics even at high polarity, without using a winding-changing mechanism. A pole-number-changing rotating electric machine for changing the number of poles between high-polarity drive and low-polarity drive, the rotating electric machine having: a rotating electric machine configured to be provided with a stator having stator slots disposed at equivalent intervals in the mechanical angle direction, and a rotor that rotates with magnetomotive force generated by current flowing in stator coils accommodated in the stator slots; an n-group inverter for supplying m-phase current to the stator coils; and a control unit for controlling the n-group inverter; wherein the control unit controls the current phase of the current flowing in the stator coils such that the current phase degree of freedom, which is the number of current phases per pole controllable by the n-group inverter, is the group number n*phase number m/2 during high-polarity drive, and the group number n*phase number m during low-polarity drive (the group number n is a multiple of 4, and the phase number m is a natural number of 3 or greater that is mutually prime with the group number n).