The thermal error of the machine tool has become one of the most important factors affecting the working performance of the machine tool.As a critical component of machine tool feed system, the thermal deformation of the ball screw directly affects the machining accuracy of the machine tool. Therefore, it is very important to control the thermal error of ball screw.In the past decades, the research on thermal error of ball screw feed system can be divided into three parts: thermal characteristic research, thermal error modeling and thermal error compensation. Firstly, the necessary parameters are obtained through the thermal characteristic analysis of ball screw, and then the thermal error modeling is carried out based on this. Finally, the thermal error detection and compensation are carried out. Based on this, the present research situation and the advantages and disadvantages of the three parts at home and abroad were discussed, and the future research trend was prospected.