For the traditional water-based fracturing fluid，it is easy to cause water-sensitive damage to reservoir. Carbon dioxide fracturing fluid has become a new direction of unconventional oil and gas development research due to its non-aqueous components. However，due to the low viscosity of pure carbon dioxide fracturing fluid，which seriously affects the fracturing effect，it is imperative to find a suitable thickener to improve the viscosity of carbon dioxide fracturing fluid. Based on the literature research， the structure and performance characteristics of four kinds of carbon dioxide thickeners including surfactant，hydrocarbon polymer， fluoropolymer and siloxane polymer were reviewed，and the current research status of carbon dioxide fracturing fluid thickening from two aspects of thickening mechanism and thickening performance was summarized. Finally，the characteristics of various thickeners were summarized and suggestions for future research directions were put forward.