Green R&D subsidies refer to financial subsidies provided by the central or local governments to encourage enterprises to engage in green technology innovation activities such as resource conservation and environmental protection. Based on the panel data of Chinese listed companies from 2011 to 2020, the incentive effects of green R&D subsidies on the quantity and quality of green technology innovation was empirically examined using a two-way fixed effect model. The results show that green R&D subsidy can promote green technology innovation. The green R&D subsidy has a heterogeneous effect on the incentive of green technology innovation, showing that the promotion effect on the quantity of green technology innovation is better than the quality. Enterprises cater to green R&D subsidies, which leads to a "strong quantity, weak quality" incentive heterogeneous effect. The incentive heterogeneity of green R&D subsidies is affected by the difference of industrial pollution degree and environmental regulation intensity. Compared with heavily polluting industries, the incentive effect of green R&D subsidies on non-heavily polluting industries is better, but the existence of catering behavior will also lead to the incentive effect of "strong quantity and weak quality". Regional green R&D subsidies with strong environmental regulations can promote the "incremental improvement" of green technology innovation of enterprises, indicating that strong regulations can restrict the catering behavior of enterprises' strategic innovation. It not only deepens the quantitative research on green R&D subsidies, but also identifies and tests the distorting effect of catering behavior, providing micro-empirical support and countermeasures for improving the formulation and issuance of green R&D subsidy standards and promoting enterprises' high-quality green technology innovation.