Grassland ecological compensation is committed to protecting the quantity and quality of grassland ecosystem services while improving the economic viability of animal husbandry. Therefore, grassland ecological compensation is vital for the sustainable management of grassland ecosystems. It is necessary to review grassland ecological compensation at the global level, studying whether ecological compensation solves the existing problems of grassland and summarizing its influencing factors. This study conducts a literature review focused on grassland ecological compensation. Sixty-nine cases were identified in the Web of Science database. These peer-review papers focused on the ecological benefits, socioeconomic benefits, and influencing factors, accounting for 34.78%, 17.39%, and 43.48%, based on theories of public goods, ecosystem service value, and social-ecological system. The results showed that (i) the ecological benefits of grassland ecological compensation mainly included restoring the area and quality of grassland, protecting species diversity, and improving ecosystem services of grassland; (ii) the socioeconomic benefits focused on increasing the income of herdsmen and improving the traditional livelihood structure of traditional husbandry; and (iii) the main influencing factors were herders’ conception and condition, ecological environment, policies background, and compensation method. Overall, this work identified the research gaps and future perspectives in the trade-off between various ecosystem services, the impact of herders as important stakeholders, and the diversity of payment methods oriented by ecological objectives and herders’ needs.