Magnetorheological polishing technology has such excellent characteristics as high machining surface precision, small surface roughness, easy control in the processing process, small surface damage, and no new damage in the processing process, etc. Therefore, it is widely applied in the precision and ultra-precision fields with high processing requirements, and often used in optical processing. The progress of mathematical model for material removal in magnetorheological polishing technology was reviewed, the correctness of the model was demonstrated, and the generality of the model was summarized. The model could be used in the processing of planar and convex spherical surfaces. In addition, it had guiding significance to realize the accuracy of computer-controlled polishing process. The experimental progress of magnetorheological polishing process was summarized, and the main factors affecting the effect of magnetorheological polishing were summarized, including magnetic field intensity and magnetic field generating device. Under the optimized combination of process parameters, the nano-scale surface could be achieved, subsurface damage could be eliminated, and various complex surfaces could be processed. The new development direction of magnetorheological polishing technology has been summarized, including cluster magnetorheological polishing technology, combined magnetorheological polishing technology and magnetorheological-ultrasonic compound polishing technology and the working principle of these processing methods and the experimental results that can be achieved are introduced. Finally, the existing problems in the current magnetorheological polishing technology are concluded, and corresponding thoughts and prospects for each problem are put forward.