Global warming caused by discharge of greenhouse gas has become a focus of concern for international community. Plenty of greenhouse gas is generated during the construction of buildings and relevant production of materials. To reduce carbon emission of buildings using correct measures,it is particularly important to quantify the carbon emission of buildings accurately. By referring to existing studies on embodied carbon during life cycle of buildings,three common methods for calculating embodied carbon during life cycle of buildings (process-based method,input-output method and hybrid method) were analyzed. The methods were compared in terms of system boundary,data characteristics and accuracy of calculation. The results showed that the process-based method features good operability,wide application but low accuracy; the input-output method is seldom applied and its results are excessively rough; the hybrid method presents high accuracy of calculation,but it is also rarely used due to complicated operation. The findings provide a theoretical basis for the selection of proper calculation method of embodied carbon during life cycle of buildings and the effective analysis of Embodied carbon during life cycle of buildings.