<p>Alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) is a critical tumor biomarker associated with various diseases, and its accurate determination is very important for clinical detection. However, the conventional techniques for detecting AFP have drawbacks such as complex sample pretreatment procedures, complicated and time-consuming operations, reliance on expensive and bulky instruments, and the need for skilled professionals, thus limiting their applications. The emergence of aptamers provides a novel and unique probe for establishment of aptasensors, effectively avoiding the aforementioned shortcomings. As a result, the application of aptamers for AFP detection has garnered increasing attention and became one of the research hotspots in recent years. In this review, the progress of aptamer selection against AFP is presented initially. Subsequently, we systematically summarize the latest advancements and trends in optical and electrochemical aptasensors for AFP detection, focusing on known AFP aptamer sequences and methods that use aptamers, such as fluorescence, surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS), chemiluminescence (CL), and photoelectrochemistry (PEC). In addition, challenges and future directions in this field are discussed to provide insights for the development of efficient and accurate AFP detection technologies.</p> Graphical Abstract <p></p>