The antimicrobial stainless steel is a new type of antibacterial materials. The antimicrobial stainless steel has good antibacterial properties, good plasticity and self sterility, and withstands high temperatures. The antimicrobial stainless steel has good application prospects in medical, food, public health and other fields. Taking the practical application into consideration, the antibacterial properties of the surface of the antimicrobial stainless steel is really working. Therefore, the surface antibacterial stainless steel has higher research value than other products. This paper reviewed the research progress in surface antibacterial stainless steel, mainly including the process of surface coating and surface modification, as well as the antibacterial ability of different products, and analyzed the problems in the preparation process and application of different types of surface antibacterial stainless steel. The result showed that the main problems of surface antimicrobial stainless steel in the process of preparation and application are the high requirements of the equipment and technology and the poor wear resistance of the products, and the gap between the current research methods and the requirements of mass production of surface antibacterial stainless steel. Based on the characteristic of electrodeposition and diffusion, in combination with the applications of electrodeposition diffusion method in the preparation of antimicrobial stainless steel, it was pointed out that the preparation of antibac- terial coatings on the surface of stainless steel substrate by electrodeposition diffusion method will be the main development direction for the preparation of surface antibacterial stainless steel in the future.