The problem of energy depletion has become an obstacle to the sustainable development of human society. According to statistics, Chinese building energy consumption accounts for 20% of our total energy consumption. Therefore, it is of paramount importance to intelligently manage the solar radiation and infrared thermal radiation of objects, achieving the self-adaption of environmental temperature while reducing energy consumption. This work summarizes the state-of-the-art advancements of bioinspired intelligent polymer materials for optical and thermal management, which includes temperature-adaptive polymer materials with dynamic modulation of solar radiation and infrared thermal radiation. The temperature-adaptive polymer materials including liquid crystals and hydrogels for dynamic modulation of solar radiation are introduced firstly, then the advanced polymer materials with tunable emissivity in the mid-wavelength and long-wavelength infrared spectral range are illustrated for dynamic modulation of infrared thermal radiation. This review concludes with a perspective on the opportunities and challenges for the future development and potential applications of emerging bioinspired intelligent polymer materials for optical and thermal management.