Plant genetic engineering technology can rapidly and precisely improve desired traits in plants, overcoming conventional breeding bottlenecks, achieving simultaneous enhancement of plant quality and yield to meet human needs. Compared to conventional plant genetic transformation methods, nanomaterials, as carriers for the intracellular delivery of exogenous genetic material, possess advantages such as being independent of genotype restrictions, strong biological affinity, biocompatibility, high cell permeability, enabling targeted transformation of functional genes, effective protection of exogenous genetic material from degradation and damage, as well as simple operation. Therefore, in recent years, nanomaterials as external biological molecular delivery tools in plant genetic transformation have received widespread attention. Due to the various requirements for nanocarriers used in plant genetic transformation, designing and synthesizing effective nanomaterials suitable for nucleic acid delivery is not easy. Therefore, the review aims to analyze and summarize the recent advances in the application of nanomaterials in plant genetic transformation, explore the mechanisms of nanomaterial-nucleic acid complexes entering plant cells/organelles and their main influencing factors, thus providing a preliminary understanding of the interaction mechanism between nanocarriers and plant cells/organelles. Meanwhile, the application of different types of nanocarriers in plant genetic transformation was classified and summarized to promote the rational design of nanocarriers for plant genetic transformation and enhance their effective utilization in plant genetic transformation.