The study of the chemical composition of mineral inclusions is of great significance in geology, mineralogy, and hydrocarbon exploration. The main methods currently investigated for the analysis of the chemical composition of inclusions are laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS), electron probe microanalysis (EPMA), laser Raman spectroscopy (LRS), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), proton-induced X-ray emission spectroscopy (PIXE), synchrotron X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy (SXRF) and (conventional) secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS), etc. This paper briefly introduces the analytical characteristics of the above methods, focuses on the principles, characteristics, and technical advantages of time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry (TOF-SIMS), which has wide potential for the characterization of mineralogical samples, and summarizes the progress and problems of the application of TOF-SIMS for the analysis of the chemical composition of mineral inclusions by domestic and foreign scholars, and gives an outlook on related fields.