Corrosion has caused serious damage to our society, lives and environments. Although the corrosion of metals and their alloys was inevitable, it was controllable using the certain protection method. Using corrosion inhibitors was a feasible strategy to protect metals and alloys from corrosion. Traditional inorganic and organic inhibitors were toxic and expensive. Growing ecological awareness and economic challenges prompted people to look for cheap, efficient, safe and nontoxic green corrosion inhibitors. In this review, the related researches of nitrogen-containing heterocyclic compounds (NCHCs) and carbon dots (CDs) as green corrosion inhibitors were summarized. The chemical compositions of several nitrogen-containing heterocyclic compounds (NCHCs) and carbon dots (CDs) and their corrosion inhibition efficiency in aggressive solutions are reviewed. The corrosion inhibition mechanisms of these environmental friendly corrosion inhibitors on metal surfaces were discussed in detail. This review briefly introduced the corrosion determination method, and expounded the application of surface analysis technology and computational chemistry tools in understanding the anti-corrosion mechanism of green and efficient corrosion inhibitors.