Abstract: 17-4PH stainless steel has high tensile strength, fracture toughness and good corrosion resistance, and is widely used in the chemical industry, nuclear energy, biomedicine and other fields. The rapid development of selective laser melting provides a new method for the production of 17-4PH stainless steel parts. As the most important raw material for selective laser melting, the preparation method of forming powder is particularly important. The principles, advantages and disadvantages of the two flow atomization, centrifugal atomization and thermal plasma assisted method for the preparation of17-4pH stainless steel powder for selective laser melting were summarized, in order to provide reference for the improvement of the preparation method of stainless steel powders.