As the global energy crisis and environmental pollution problems become more and more serious, it is important to develop new ways to improve the existing situation. Among these new technologies, the photocatalysis technology has caused widespread concern because of their huge application prospects in harnessing pollution free solar energy to degrade organic pollutants. In the other hand, from a fundamental scientific and technical standpoint, efficiently improved optical frequency is a demanding and intriguing topic, which provides a great framework for studying the optical processes impacted by the local photonic environment. This sort of study is especially pertinent since plasmonics places a greater focus on nonlinearity. Thus, the technology of near infrared (NIR) catalysis has received a lot of interest. In this review, we aim at offering an integrated framework about NIR photocatalysis. We will give a brief introduction of photocatalysis based on the upconversion (UC) materials, including the efficiency of UC materials, and the combination and energy transfer process between semiconductor and UC particles, as well as photoelectric response, photo controlled-delivery and photodynamic therapy based on the NIR-responsive materials.