The invention discloses a microwave sample pretreatment method applied to organic carbon detection, which is characterized in that when the sample is heated by a wave-absorbing material in a manner of direct contacting, silicon iron, nickel sesquioxide, cobalt sesquioxide, molybdenum sulfide, ferric sulfide, ferroferric oxide, manganese dioxide, nickel oxide, tungsten trioxide, molybdenum sulfide, copper pyrite, cuprous sulfide, ferrite compound, or other wave-absorbing materials free from carbon are adopted as wave-absorbing media; and when the sample is indirectly heated by the wave-absorbing material, carbon, silicon carbide, silicon iron, nickel sesquioxide, cobalt sesquioxide, molybdenum sulfide, ferric sulfide, ferroferric oxide, manganese dioxide, nickel oxide, tungsten trioxide, molybdenum disulfide, copper pyrite, cuprous sulfide, ferrite compound, or other wave-absorbing materials are taken as the wave-absorbing media. The sample pretreatment method disclosed by the invention has the advantages of being rapid in temperature raising speed, complete in reaction and the like, and is suitable for pretreatment of detection of various organic carbon samples.