The invention discloses a GaN-based light-emitting diode epitaxial wafer, a preparation method of the GaN-based light-emitting diode epitaxial wafer, and a light-emitting diode, and belongs to the technical field of epitaxy. The GaN-based light-emitting diode epitaxial wafer comprises a substrate, an AlN thin-film buffer layer, a three-dimensional nucleating layer, a two-dimensional buffer recovery layer and an epitaxial layer, wherein the AlN thin-film buffer layer, the three-dimensional nucleating layer, the two-dimensional buffer recovery layer and the epitaxial layer are sequentially stacked on the substrate; the three-dimensional nucleating layer is a GaN layer; the three-dimensional nucleating layer comprises a first nucleating sub-layer, a second nucleating sub-layer and a third nucleating sub-layer which are sequentially stacked on the AlN thin-film buffer layer; for the first nucleating sub-layer, the growth pressure of is 150-250 torr, the growth temperature is 1,000-1,100 DEG C, and the V/III ratio is 500-1,000; for the second nucleating sub-layer, the growth pressure is 500-700 torr, the growth temperature is 900-1,000 DEG C, and the V/III ratio is 100-200; and for thethird nucleating sub-layer, the growth pressure is 100-200 torr, the growth temperature is 1,100-1,150 DEG C, and the V/III ratio is 200-300. The interaction of dislocation is enhanced by growing thenucleating layer according to the three sub-layers, so that various dislocations caused by a pressure stress between the AlN thin-film buffer layer and GaN can be reduced, and the surface mobility ofAl atoms is improved.