Hydraulic elevators have many advantages, covering smooth operation, comfortable ride, large bearing force, low noise, flexible installation, low operation and maintenance requirements, etc. Therefore, hydraulic elevators demonstrate huge application prospects in the middle and lowrise elevator market at home and abroad. Nevertheless, the problems of high installed power and serious energy consumption restrict the application and development of hydraulic elevators. Because environmental protection and energy conservation are the development concepts of modern elevator industry. From this perspective, it is of great significance to reduce the operation power and energy consumption for the development of hydraulic elevator technology. The research progress of design and optimization of hydraulic elevator system for energy saving were summarized, providing reference for the development of energy saving technology of hydraulic elevator. Finally, the research prospects of energysaving technology of hydraulic elevator were presented.