•Reviewing thermal comfort models in different aspects.•Analyzing the advantages and disadvantages of all the models in the review.•Interpreting the importance of the models in different environments.•Suggesting some future developing directions of thermal comfort models. In the past several years, thermal comfort, especially development and application of thermal comfort model, has been a research focus of building environment. Since the 1970s, a series of thermal comfort models based on people's thermal sensation to environment have been established, and gradually became an important part of the field of thermal comfort research. In this review, the existing thermal comfort models are summarized from various perspectives, such as models applied in different environments like sleeping environment and outdoor environment. Besides, models used for different groups people, such as elderly and different races are discussed. In the part, adaptive models are mentioned. In additions, data-driven models were reviewed. This paper introduced the advantages and disadvantages of each model. Based on the above review, future research work of thermal comfort model is proposed.