Abstract: Excessive plant essential trace elements in soil and heavy metal pollution could inhibit plant growth and metabolism, reduce plant biomass, and cause plant physiological diseases and even death. Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) can promote plant growth, improve plant nutrient absorption, and play an important role in improving plant heavy metal tolerance. Based on the current situation of heavy metal pollution in soil, this paper summarized the action mechanism of AMF, analyzed the main mechanisms of AMF alleviating plant toxicity under the stress conditions of iron (Fe), boron (B), nickel (Ni), zinc (Zn), lead (Pb), cadmium (Cd), arsenic (As), chromium (Cr), mercury (Hg) and summarized the differences of AMF’s mechanisms in alleviating the toxicity of different metals to plant, in order to provide theoretical reference for AMF to alleviate the toxicity of excessive trace elements and heavy metals to plants.