Abstract: The liquid chromatograph with UV detector system is one of the most commonly used analytical instruments in pharmaceutical analysis, which can deal with most analytical tasks. However, the analytes without UV spectral absorption are often encountered in practical applications, when other detectors with different response mechanisms as supplements might achieve good results. The charged aerosol detector (CAD) have been widely used in recent years. The mechanism and instrument structure of CAD were briefly introduced. The similarities and differences between CAD and other aerosol-based detectors were compared. The applications of CAD in the field of pharmaceutical analysis in recent years were summarized and finally the future development of the detector were prospected.