The invention relates to the technical field of networks on chip, and discloses a low-power-consumption adaptive routing method in a network on chip. The method comprises the following steps that: S1, distances between a source node and a destination node of a message in an x dimension direction and a y dimension direction are calculated respectively, if the sum of the distances is zero, routing is finished, otherwise, a step S2 is executed; S2, the network is divided into two virtual sub-networks x+y* and x-y*; and S3, the message enters into the virtual sub-network x+y* or x-y* for routing. In the method, the physical network is divided into two virtual sub-networks x+y* and x-y*, the interiors of the virtual sub-networks x+y* and x-y* both use a fully adaptive routing algorithm of the shortest path and a new EVC (Express Virtual Channel) flow control technology, data packets are injected into a corresponding virtual network according to the offset value of the destination node of the data packets relative to the source node, and the data packets are routed to the destination in a manner of adaptive routing. In the routing process of the data packets, an EVC is selected preferably, and an NVC (Normal Virtual Channel) is used when no idle EVC exists, so that the routing goes forward according to normal pipeline stages, the performance is improved and the power consumption is reduced.