Abstract: Soil carbon is not only an important factor influencing soil fertility and sustainable agricultural development, but also has important significance for slowing down the greenhouse effect. Therefore, soil carbon analysis is an important research content in agricultural and environmental fields. The traditional chemical analysis methods can not meet the needs of modern green agriculture for rapid determination of soil carbon because of its disadvantages of low efficiency, poor real-time performance and pollution. In recent years, mid-infrared spectroscopy (MIR) has become an effective method for obtaining soil carbon information due to its advantages of simple operation, good reproducibility, fast test speed, low sample usage, environmental protection and suitable for batch sample determination. In this paper, the basic principle by MIR technology were introduced concisely. The research progress and influencing factors of this technology in the determination of soil carbon were reviewed, and the application prospect concerning MIR technology in soil carbon quantification in China was also discussed. Now, MIR technology has been successfully applied to predict soil total carbon, organic carbon, inorganic carbon, char, dissolved organic carbon, microbial biomass carbon, biomass carbon, particulate organic carbon, mineral associated organic carbon, recalcitrant organic carbon, and so on. Therefore, MIR technology provides a rapid and non-destructive method for soil carbon analysis, and also provides an advanced technical support for the development of green agriculture and precision agriculture.