Platinum group metals (PGMs) play a pivotal role as indispensable strategic resources in automotive exhaust catalysts, chemical industries, investments, healthcare, and other fields.  China faces significant scarcity in PGM mineral resources, making the recovery of PGMs from secondary resources particularly critical. This paper comprehensively reviews and  analyzes  recovery methods  for  spent  automotive exhaust catalysts, a major secondarysource of PGMs. It highlights hydrometallurgical and pyrometallurgical recovery processes developed domestically and internationally, comparing their advantages and limitations. Furthermore, future research directions for PGM  recovery from spent catalysts  are proposed to advance the sustainable utilization of these metals, offering innovative ideas and approaches.