Abstract: Porous tungsten is composed of tungsten skeleton and the high proportion of internal pores, which combines the excellent characteristics of refractory metal tungsten and porous materials. It is widely used in aviation, electronics, high temperature and other fields due to the excellent high temperature resistance, corrosion resistance, high specific surface area, and high permeability. The main application of porous tungsten is to utilize the functions of pore connectivity, filling, storage, and filtration on the basis of the intrinsic metal tungsten characteristics. Therefore, the key to prepare the high-performance porous tungsten and broaden the application in the further lies on obtaining the stable and controllable pores. Control of the porosity characteristics during the preparation process was focused in this paper. Firstly, the crucial role of porosity characteristics in the main applications of porous tungsten was elaborated; then, the effects of powder characteristics, forming methods, and sintering system on the pore characteristics of porous tungsten were summarized; finally, the research directions and development trend of porous tungsten were pointed out.