As a chronic progressive lung disease with poor prognosis, the pathogenesis of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) has not yet been clarified, and its treatment is still being explored. Animal models are important tools for studying the pathogenesis and therapeutic effects of diseases. Based on the similarity between animal models and human of IPF in terms of disease phenotype, this paper will review the research progress of IPF animal models in terms of the fibrosis mechanism induced by drugs and environmental factors, histopathological alterations, fibrosis stage, modelling time, etc., and describe the advantages and disadvantages of different animal models, their characteristics and application profiles.