<p>Arsenic, a highly toxic carcinogen has been found in groundwater in many regions of the world, which creates a huge environmental problem. Contaminated water used for drinking, food preparation, and irrigation of food crops poses the greatest threat to public health from this toxic heavy metal. Prolonged contact with arsenic can causes skin cancer and cancer of the bladder and lungs. Therefore, detection of arsenic in aqueous medium and environmental samples by the use of rapid, environment-friendly, cost-effective, and selective systems is highly demanding. In this aspect, carbon dots (CDs) have proved themselves as a promising material over other conventional sensors like small molecules, nanomaterials, gold nanoparticles, quantum dots, etc. due to their good photophysical behavior, high water solubility, eco-friendly nature, and very low toxicity. Different CDs-based systems have been developed by the researchers for the selective and low-level detection of arsenic, mainly in water. The fluorescence mechanism of these probes exhibits that these probes can detect arsenic with the help of various fluorescence strategies such as on-off-on, IFE, AIE, PET, FRET, etc. Most interestingly, ready-to-use systems like CDs-based aerogel sensor, paper strip sensor etc., have been developed for naked eye visual sensing of arsenic, which are portable, user-friendly and very effective. Still, further research on low-level arsenic detection is needed for the benefit of human health. Thus, this review can help the research community in this area to develop more effective sensors for arsenic in aqueous media and environmental samples.</p> Graphical abstract <p></p>