Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a frequent and common disease of the respiratory system. The problem of low early diagnosis rate, low treatment compliance, and low treatment standardization has persisted in the diagnosis and treatment of COPD. Heterogeneity found in clinical practice is one of the reasons why COPD is difficult to treat. In recent years, it has been gradually recognized that the occurrence and development of COPD are closely related to the immune state of the body. At present, it become one of the hot spots in clinical and basic research that searching for specific and sensitive cell and molecular biomarkers to early diagnose acute exacerbation and subtype differentiation of COPD, which ultimately provide individual diagnosis and treatment strategies for COPD patients. This review focuses on the research progress of immunocytes and immunologic factors as biomarkers to different phenotypes and progression of COPD in recent years, providing a reference for the research on diagnosis and treatment of COPD.