The power and energy are very high, as a result, laser energy meters are easily damaged and measurement uncertainties are increased. The domestic and overseas methods to directly measure high energy laser(HEL) energy were compared and summed up, and the benefit and the drawback of the technologies were thoroughly analyzed, finally, the development trends of the technologies to directly measure HEL energy were expatiated. The research shows that it′s the most effective measures to improve the measurement capacities to increase heat exchange efficiency, and especially when the body-absorbing model and the compelling heat exchange model were adopted, these effects are better; it′s the key to improve the measurement accuracy of passive-absorbing-type HEL energy meter to eliminate the effects of temperature gradent in the absorber on specific heat of material and response time of temperature sensors; while it's the key to improve the measurement accuracy of water-absorbing-type HEL energy meter to eliminate the effects of phase change of water, and uneven of water temperature.Nowadays all kinds of higher heat exchange efficiency and new mechanism methods are quickly developing and applied, as a result, the measurement capacities and measurement accuracy are improved,and the energy-accumulating-type energy meters are replaced by power-equilibrium-type energy meter to adapt to longer duration of lasers in the future.