The current status of the optical micro-satellites at home and abroad is presented in brief. The main parameters of the optical micro-satellites at home and abroad over the past two decades are summarized and analyzed. It is found that the modern optical micro-satellites are commonly in sun-synchronous orbits. Their mass, size and power consumption decrease year by year. The data show that the optical micro-nano satellites have entered a rapid development stage and will occupy the dominant position in optical micro-satellites soon. However, in view of the factors such as cost, power consumption and key performance, the optical micro-satellites will eventually have a proper size other than the smaller the better. Modern optical micro-satellites are flexible in spectral band setting. Strong comprehensive detection capability, multi-use and multi-capability will become the common features for future optical micro-satellites. In addition, compared with CCD, CMOS is superior in cost. The development of new CMOS has achieved significant progress. It is expected that CMOS devices will be more used in optical micro-satellites.