With the great development of urban underground space, both the buried depth of the foundation and the buoyancy of the groundwater continue to increase, which may easily cause the foundation pit to float during the construction process or even affect the normal use of the underground structure. Uplift piles are widely used in anti-floating projects due to the advantages of less disturbance to the rock and soil around the pile during construction, simple process, convenient construction, and good anti-floating effect. At present, the mechanical properties, bearing capacity and deformation characteristics of uplift piles are the research hotspots of uplift piles in anti-floating engineering. The action mechanism of the uplift pile, common failure forms and ultimate bearing capacity are summarized and analyzed in this paper. The research progress in numerical simulation of uplift pile is summarized. Some problems of uplift pile in anti-floating engineering are put forward, and a new idea is provided for the future development of uplift pile in anti-floating field of underground structure.