This paper introduces a comprehensive survey of a new population-based algorithm so-called gradient-based optimizer (GBO) and analyzes its major features. GBO considers as one of the most effective optimization algorithm where it was utilized in different problems and domains, successfully. This review introduces set of related works of GBO where distributed into; GBO variants, GBO applications, and evaluate the efficiency of GBO compared with other metaheuristic algorithms. Finally, the conclusions concentrate on the existing work on GBO, showing its disadvantages, and propose future works. The review paper will be helpful for the researchers and practitioners of GBO belonging to a wide range of audiences from the domains of optimization, engineering, medical, data mining and clustering. As well, it is wealthy in research on health, environment and public safety. Also, it will aid those who are interested by providing them with potential future research.