As a kind of complex polar organic compounds commonly existing in the atmosphere, dissolved organic carbon (DOC) in precipitation has extensive and far-reaching influences on regional ambient air quality, global climate change and carbon cycle process, and has become one of the hot spots in current global change research. This article systematically summarized the research progress on atmospheric precipitation DOC in recent decades both domestically and internationally from three aspects: the abundance and bioavailability of DOC in atmospheric precipitation, the spatial and temporal distribution characteristics and influencing factors of DOC concentration and wet deposition flux in precipitation, and the ecological and environmental effects of DOC wet deposition. In the end of the article, the future development direction was discussed. The results indicated that the chemical composition of precipitation DOC is exceptionally complex, mainly composed of low molecular weight organic acids, amino acids and urea, etc. with high bioavailability. There were significant spatiotemporal differences in precipitation DOC concentration and wet deposition flux among different areas, which were mainly controlled by emission sources, emission intensity, and complex weather conditions. The DOC in the atmosphere could affect the properties of aerosols and precipitation (acid rain), and DOC settling on the surface of snow and ice could accelerate the melting of glaciers. At the same time, the input of DOC brought by wet deposition can enrich the organic carbon levels on the surface of seawater. Active DOC can promote the improvement of secondary productivity in marine ecosystem, while refractory DOC could contribute to the refractory dissolved organic carbon pool in the ocean, which is conducive to carbon sequestration and enhances ocean carbon sinks, helping to achieve the goals of "Ocean Negative Carbon Emissions" and "Carbon Neutrality". Future research should continue to focus on developing and using advanced instruments and equipment to accurately identify and quantitative the chemical composition of precipitation DOC, to have a deeper understanding of the bioavailability/inertness characteristics of precipitation DOC. At the same time, new numerical simulation techniques should be developed and utilized to conduct in-depth research on the spatiotemporal heterogeneity of atmospheric DOC wet deposition fluxes with different properties of on the global scale, and quantify the indirect wet deposition flux of atmospheric DOC. On this basis, elucidating the significance and value of atmospheric DOC wet deposition as one of the new pathways for improving global ocean carbon sequestration, so as to gain a deeper understanding on the position and role of atmospheric deposition in global carbon cycling and ocean “missing carbon sink” research.