The machining accuracy of gears is a key bottleneck which limit the development of high-end equipment.The high-precision gears can be achieved based on the advanced gear manufacturing machine tool.Due to the complexity of the structure and movement of gear machine tools,the difficulty of geometric error compensation is increased greatly.By analyzing the geometric error compensation technology of multi-axis universal machine tools at home and abroad in recent years and combining with the development status of geometric error compensation of gear machine tools,the geometric error compensation technology of gear machine tools was summarized.The sources of geometric errors of gear machine tools were summarized.Four theories were introduced that could be applied to geometric error modeling,such as multi-body system theory,screw theory,differential motion matrix and stream-of-variation theory.The methods of measuring and identifying geometric errors of linear axis and rotating axis by laser interferometer and ball bar instrument were analyzed.The geometric error compensation method by modifying NC data to was summarized.It provides a reference for the geometric error compensation design of gear processing machine tools.