With the development of enhanced recovery after surgery (ERAS) and the application of the comfortable medical treatment principle, perioperative pain management has become an increasingly attention topic. Anesthesiologists have played an essential role in perioperative pain management. However, anesthesiologists also faced three major challenges, which are how to provide effective analgesia, how to prevent the side effects of opioids, and how to avoid drug abuse addiction. In this review, we summarized the progress of clinical research on opioid‑sparing anesthesia as follows: A new‑multimodel anesthesia strategy of non‑opioid analgesics, regional anesthesia that helps to reduce the consumption of opioids as well as the related side effects. Perioperative opioid‑sparing anesthesia leads to achieve comfortable anesthesia and analgesia, which subsequently improve the prognosis of patients.