The invention discloses a low-etching photoresist cleaning agent, which is characterized in that the invention comprises (a) quaternary ammonium hydroxide, (b) dimethyl sulfoxide, (c) alkyl glycol aryl ether and derivation of the alkyl glycol aryl ether whose molecular formula is like the indication of formula I, (d) aminoethyl alcohol, (e) water, (f) inhibitor, in the formula I, R1 chooses arylamine which contains 6 to 18 carbon atoms, m=2 to 6, n-1 to 6. The invention also provides a cleaning method for using the cleaning agent, which is characterized in that indoor temperature is less than 85 DEG C, a semiconductor crystal with photo resist is cleaned by low-etching photoresist cleaning agent, and then which is cleaned by deionized water, and is dried in nitrogen. The cleaning agent of the invention can be used for removing photo resist (light blockage) or other residues on metals, metal alloy, or dielectric substrate. The cleaning agent has strong cleaning ability, which has an obvious effect of corrosion inhibition to metals such as earth silicon, copper, phosphorus, and stannum and low K dielectric material and the like, and no black dots can be guaranteed, and the invention has a good application prospect in the microelectron field such as the cleaning of semiconductor crystal and the like.