In recent years, with the advancement of metamaterials, mid-infrared metasurfaces have achieved fast development and their various applications have also been explored. Here, various types of mid-infrared absorbing metasurfaces with their mechanisms are introduced. Then, some application methods and advantages of the absorbing metasurfaces in thermal radiation, thermal camouflage, and detectors are summarized. At last, the existing challenges are summarized and further applications are prospected.