Monosialotetrahexosylganglioside (GM1) production via bioconversion from gangliosides is promising for industrial application because it has the advantages of a high GM1 yield and an environmentally friendly process. Sialidase hydrolyzes gangliosides to GM1 producing sialic acid as a by-product, which inhibits the sialidase activity, while the incomplete conversion of gangliosides was indicated by thin-layer chromatography (TLC) in the presence of sialic acid. The sialic acid showed competitive inhibition on the sialidase activity with an inhibition constant of 0.75 mmol/L. By harnessing the in situ product removal (ISPR) technique, 50 g/L of crude gangliosides was completely converted to GM1 after a 12 h conversion. The GM1 concentration increased from 0.42 to 10.88 g/L in the ISPR system, which was 59.1 % higher than that of the control (6.84 g/L GM1). In addition, sialic acid was recovered simultaneously with a yield of 74.7 %. In summary, the ISPR system improved the bioconversion from gangliosides to GM1 and recovered sialic acid within a one-step bioprocess.