Abstract: The constitutive behaviors of soils under cyclic loads and the mechanical requirements for cyclic plastic models are briefly summarized. The basic characteristics of several frequently used cyclic plastic models, such as the multi, the infinite, the two, the single, the bounding, the multiple mechanism and the subloading surface models, and their predicting capacity for cyclic loading characteristics of soil are reviewed. Finally, suggestions are made for future studies of soil cyclic plastic models.