Since the first case of acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) was reported in 1981, AIDS has always been a global health threat and the leading cause of deaths due to the rapid emergence of drug-resistance and unwanted metabolic side effects. Every day in 2007 an estimated 6850 people were newly infected with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). Over the past 28 years the rapid worldwide spread of AIDS has prompted an intense research effort to discover compounds that could effectively inhibit HIV. The development of new, selective and safe inhibitors for the treatment of HIV, therefore, still remains a high priority for medical research. To the best of our knowledge, the indole derivatives have been considered as one class of promising HIV-1 inhibitors, such as delavirdine approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 1997 for use in combination with other antiretrovirals in adults with HIV infection. In this review we focus on the synthesis and anti-HIV-1 activity of indole derivatives, in the meantime, the structure-activity relationship (SAR) for some derivatives are also surveyed. It will pave the way for the design of indole derivatives as anti-HIV-1 drugs in the future.