Precious noble metals (such as, Pt, Ir) and non-precious transition metals (e.g., Fe, Co), including their compounds (e.g., oxides, nitrides), have been widely investigated as efficient catalysts for energy generation, energy conversion, energy storage, important chemical productions, and many industrial processes. However, they often suffer from high cost, low selectivity, poor durability, and susceptibility to gas poisoning with adverse environmental issues. As a low-cost alternative, the first carbon-based metal-free catalyst (i.e., C-MFC based on N-doped carbon nanotubes) was discovered in 2009. Since then, various C-MFCs have been demonstrated to show similar or even better catalytic performance than their metal-based counterparts, attractive for energy conversion and storage (e.g., fuel cells, metalair batteries, water splitting), environmental remediation, and chemical production. Enormous progress has been achieved while the number of publications still rapidly increases every WILEY-VCH This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved. 2 year. Herein, a critical overview of the very recent advances in this rapidly developing field during the last couple of years is presented.Received: ((will be filled in by the editorial staff)) Revised: ((will be filled in by the editorial staff)) Published online: ((will be filled in by the editorial staff))This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.62Carbon-based metal-free catalysts (CMFCs), being introduced in 2009, have emerged as low-cost alternative to commercial metal catalysts with similar or even better catalytic performance for energy conversion and storage (e.g., fuel cells, metal-air batteries, water splitting), environmental remediation, and chemical production. A timely critical review of the enormous amount of recent progress in this exciting field is presented.