With the improvement of the quality and performance of laser additive manufacturing metal components, the metal powder material has become a restraining factor for the application of metal laser additive manufacturing technology. Therefore, the special metal powder for laser additive manufacturing has recently become one of the research hotspots in the recent years. The research current status of steel powders used for laser additive manufacturing is reviewed from various aspects such as materials design, powder fabrication, powder evaluation and sample cases. Also, the main problems and research directions are put forward for the research and application of laser additive manufacturing steel powders.