As a promising large-scale energy storage technology, redox flow batteries (RFBs) have been developed rapidly in recent ten years. Compared with the traditional aqueous inorganic RFBs (which take vanadium, zinc, iron, halogen or other inorganic ions as redox-active molecules), aqueous organic redox flow batteries (AORFBs) have more choices of redox-active molecules from a wide range of sources, which have become a research hotspot in RFBs. Besides, the structure of organic molecules is easy to modify and the electrochemical window is flexible and adjustable, thus AORFBs are expected to break through the power and energy density of traditional aqueous RFBs. However, the poor stability and low solubility of organic molecules make the actual life and operating costs of AORFBs still not comparable to vanadium flow batteries. Therefore, researchers have done a lot of works. This review summarizes the recent advances of five typical AORFBs systems, including organic metal complexes, nitric oxide radicals, quinones, viologen derivatives and organic polymers AORFBs systems. Moreover, the characteristics and scientific problems of AORFBs have been discussed, and future advancement of AORFBs are also prospected.