Cotton fabric is a prevalent natural textile. The fibers in the cotton fabric are polymers made of thousands of glucose residues linked by glycosidic bonds. Cotton fabric has good air permeability and comfortable softness, which becomes a necessity in life. However, the surface of cotton fabric contains hydrophilic groups such as hydroxyl groups that can absorb moisture. When people wear cotton fabric, it is easy to absorb moisture and breed bacteria, which reduces fabric the performance. Therefore, it is necessary to carry out long-term antibacterial treatment on cotton fabric, which extends the application scope and prolongs the service life of the fabric to a certain extent. Based on this point of view, this paper summarizes the long-acting antibacterial surface construction of cotton fabric by diverse antibacterial materials with assorted ways of action, so that cotton fabric has a better prospect.