Abstract Grinding surface topography is one of the important indexes of surface integrity, which plays a key role in the contact stress, wear resistance, corrosion resistance and fatigue strength of materials. This article summarizes the development of modeling methods, technical routes and research results of grinding surface topography at home and abroad, overviews three methods of surface topography modeling (empirical modeling method, theoretical modeling method, finite element analysis method) , discusses advantages and disadvantages of these modeling methods in detail and pointes out the problems existing in the study of grinding surface topography. Finally, the research puts forward the direction of surface topography modeling for grinding.