To comprehensively understand the development and evolutionary trend of ecological compensation research in China, this paper employed articles retrieved from the CSSCI database as data sources. We conducted scientifically bibliometric analysis on the published papers, main force of research, research themes, and hotspot evolution of domestic ecological compensation research. The investigation was carried out using the visual analysis tool, CiteSpace software, and series of knowledge maps were drawn. The results show that: ①the annual number of domestic ecological compensation publications has undergone three stages of growth in the order of rapid growth-slow growth-gradual decline. ②The domestic research literature in ecological compensation mainly emanates from a few research groups; a small number of research groups lay the foundation of domestic ecological compensation research, and there is a lack of cooperation between the groups mentioned above and other researchers in the field. ③The School of Economics and Finance of Xi’an Jiaotong University, the Institute of Geographical Sciences and Resources of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the School of Humanities and Development of China Agricultural University, and the School of Economics and Management of Shandong Agricultural University are the leading research institutions in the field of ecological compensation research. The cooperation among research institutions is dependent on geographical ties, and the cross-regional collaboration between institutions is weak. ④The research hotspots of domestic ecological compensation are watershed ecological compensation, ecological compensation mechanism, ecological civilization construction and transfer payments; the research frontiers cover the fields of ecosystem services, willingness to be compensated, green development and ecological products.