Abstract: There are many factors which affect the fatigue life, but residual stress and overload are the most important. Overload in a metal can improve its fatigue strength markedly. Based on a large number of tests, the effects of the overload on fatigue crack initiation life, fatigue crack propagation life, fatigue cumulative damage cyclic rate and crack propagation retardation are researched.Experimental data on the influence of overload on the fatigue initiation life are summarized in a table. In order to compare the influence of overload on fatigue crack propagation life with crack propagation retardation effect, a-N curves are used for demonstrating the experimental results of three notched specimens. Finally the effect of overload on fatigue life is explained in the view of residual stress.