Pepper (Zanthoxylum bungeanum Maxim.) is an important economic crop, integrating flavoring, medicine, oil extraction and ornamental, which has a long history and is widely planted in China. China is the origin of pepper and has found 45 species, 13 varieties, rich resources. Pepper like sunshine and have strong survival ability. However, pepper makes the cultivation and promotion of the limitations for its relatively poor low temperature resistance. Low temperature is the main environmental factor, which seriously affects the yield and quality of pepper and impedes the sustainable development of pepper industry. In this paper, we reviewed the current research status at home and abroad from four aspects, including the growth morphology, evaluation of cold tolerance, physiological and biochemical changes, and molecular response mechanism of pepper. The results showed that there are two methods to characterize the low-temperature tolerance of pepper: natural identification in the field and indoor low-temperature treatment. Related studies on physiological changes in pepper mainly focused on four aspects: water content, biofilm structure (relative conductivity, MDA), antioxidant enzymes (SOD, POD) and osmotic regulating substances (soluble sugars, soluble proteins, free proline); the exploration of molecular response mechanisms in pepper has revealed multiple metabolic pathways that work together in response to low-temperature stress in pepper. Finally, this paper analyzes and looks forward to the current research direction of pepper in response to low-temperature stress, in order to lay a foundation for further identification and evaluation of Zanthoxylum Zanthoxylum germplasm resources, research on cold resistance and the creation and cultivation of cold resistant germplasm.