Transcritical power cycle is a thermodynamic system that converts thermal energy into mechanical work, which has received much attention from both academia and industry, owing to its high thermal efficiency and good economic performance in energy conversion from low-to medium-temperature heat sources. At present, most of the existing literature is reviewed for specific applications of transcritical power cycles, and there is few general discussions of cycle construction, simulation models and working fluids. Firstly, taking the transcritical power cycle as the main line, the existing structures of the transcritical power cycle were reviewed. Thereafter, the thermodynamic models (steady-state and dynamic), the economic models (exergy economic model and the system cost model) for cycle simulation were introduced. Recent advances on transcritical power cycles were presented in terms of the working fluids (organic fluids, CO2 and CO2 mixture) at home and abroad. Lastly, the relevant experimental researches on transcritical cycles in recent years were illustrated. Based on the above reviews, it′s pointed out that the cycle construction will be developed towards artificial intelligence-based methods, and CO2-based mixture may become a hot research spot in the future. Meanwhile, it′s urgent to vigorously develop system components and conduct more experimental researches on transcritical system.