Halophilic archaea is a kind of heterotrophic prokaryotes living in extremely high salinity environment. The extracellular enzymes secreted by these microorganisms can maintain enzymatic activity under the high salt condition, and play an important role in the leather industry, the treatment of high salt organic wastewater and pickle processing. In this paper, the sources and basic enzymatic properties of several common extracellular enzymes excreted by halophilic archaea such as extracellular protease, amylase and esterase are reviewed, to provide a reference for better exploitation and utilization of extracellular enzyme resources of halophilic archaea.