Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is an autoimmune disease characterized by chronic synovial membrane inflammation. The pathogenesis of RA is unknown, and the related researches mainly focus on inflammation and immune response. Recent researches have found that metabolism is closely related to immunity. Besides, hypoxia and metabolic disorders of glucose and fat can also affect the development, differentiation and function of immune cells, and then lead to occurrence of autoimmune diseases. In recent years, more and more studies have focused on the role of metabolic pathways in the immunity and pathogenesis of RA, in order to explore the pathogenesis of RA from different perspectives and to provide new ideas for the treatment of RA. In this review, we summarized the role of hypoxia, glucose metabolism and fat metabolism in immunity and pathogenesis of RA.