The design of the photocatalytic materials has made a great of remarkable progress in the area of the enhancement photocatalytic activity, but there are still lots of problems such as wide band gap, low utilization of sunlight, low quantum efficiency and poor stability, which further limit the extensive practical applications. Thus, it is a hot research topic and key scientific problem to be solved that how to design and prepare the catalysts, which can respond to visible and near-infrared light in sunlight. Inspired by efficient nonlinear optical upconversion materials, upconversion-based nanocomposites can indirectly broaden the absorption ranges of semiconductors by converting the captured long-band visible and near-infrared incident light into high-energy short-band visible or ultraviolet light, which can be adopted as the promising candidate in wide-spectral-light-activating photocatalytic materials coupling with conventional semiconductors. According to our recent works and literature reports, recent review summarizes the research progress of photocatalytic materials with upconversion effect on photolysis of water for hydrogen production, degradation of organic and inorganic pollutants, reduction of CO2 and photodynamic therapy. The prepared nanocomposites can suppress the recombination of electrons and holes, and greatly improve the photocatalytic efficiency by the synergistic effect. It maybe stimulates a great interest in rational design and preparation of efficient full-spectrum photocatalytic systems and their wide application in solar energy conversion.