CNC machine tools play an important role in the equipment manufacturing industry, and their reliability level has become the bottleneck restricting the development of the industry. Reliability modeling of NC machine tools is the basis of reliability engineering. A comprehensive review on the state of the reliability modeling technology research is given. Reliability models are mainly divided into four categories: reliability modeling method based on fault time data, reliability modeling method based on multi-source hierarchical information set, reliability modeling method based on performance degradation data and process reliability modeling method based on dynamic characteristic parameters. The research process and technical progress of various modeling methods are analyzed. On the basis of affirming the obvious progress made in the reliability modeling method and technology of CNC machine tools, this paper analyzes and points out the existing problems and shortcomings of the research work, and discusses the trends and hotspots of the reliability modeling research of CNC machine tools. Finally, the development trend of reliability modeling methods and technology of CNC machine tools is prospected from the perspective of reliability modeling development law、engineering application and industry demand.