Microbial diversity plays critical roles in regulating multiple ecosystem functions and enhancing ecosystem stability. In this study, we investigated the functional diversity of the microbial community and its driving factors at six different elevations in Tibet by using Biolog microplate analysis. The results showed that:(1) The carbon utilization of the soil microbial community at different elevations of the alpine meadow increased gradually with culturing time. As elevation increased, microbial metabolic activity and the community diversity index all exhibited unimodal trends in the order of 4800 m > 4950 m > 4400 m > 4650 m > 5100 m > 5300 m. (2) The principal component analysis showed that the elevation gradient significantly influenced the metabolism diversity of microbial community. Polymer, carboxylic acids, and amino acids were the preferred carbon sources for the soil microorganisms. The utilization of carbohydrates, carboxylic acids, and amino acids was more sensitive than that of other carbon sources to changes in elevation. (3) The variation partitioning analysis showed that the soil, plant, and climate were the most important factors for explaining the carbon metabolism of the microbial community diversity and explained 79% of the variation. The partial mental test showed that the soil moisture, vegetation richness, and average annual precipitation were the most important environmental factors that influenced the variations in the utilization of microbial carbon sources at different elevations. In conclusion, our study showed that the metabolic diversity of soil microbial carbon sources was clearly varied with elevation, and soil water content, vegetation richness, and mean annual precipitation were the main factors underlying this variation.