Carbonates are ubiquitous, forming in a wide range of settings including caves, soils, the oceans, during burial from hydrothermal fluids, and along faults, with recording the processes of fluid occurrence. Thus, accurate ages of the minerals are necessary to understand the lifespan of fluid events. However, low uranium carbonates are difficult to date using traditional U series dating and isotope dilution due to ultra-low concentrations, the lack of ideal standards and the time-consuming process. With the recent advent of in-situ high precision analysis techniques, LA-ICP-MS has made significant progress in obtaining more accurate dating results with the advantages of high spatial resolution and rapid data acquisition and has been widely used in different geological fields. Herein, this paper investigates the research progress for carbonate U-Pb dating and introduces and discusses the related fundamentals and methodologies of the U-Pb dating system. The new technique with untapped potential for solving numerous geochronological problems from the timing of faulting and the age of sedimentation, ore deposits and diagenesis are furthermore reviewed in the present study. The applications mentioned have enriched the understanding of the formation and evolution of the crust and resolved some complicated evolution history in geosciences. In the future, it is promising that applying the U-Pb dating of carbonates and rare earth element analysis will be a significant development direction and provide new insights into carbonate geochronology studies. It is worth noting that the widespread use of U-Pb geochronology is the premise of application success.