We conduct a study to explore the influence of impaired renal function on prognosis in Acute pulmonary embolism (APE) patients. A meta-analysis was performed using the EMBASE and PubMed databases for relevant publications reporting the impact of impaired renal function on the clinical outcomes in patients with APE. Eventually, 17 articles were included in our analysis. The results suggested that renal insufficiency (RI) is a predictor of poor prognosis in APE patients(short-term mortality: pooled OR = 2.83, 95%CI: 2.20-3.63; long-term mortality: pooled OR = 2.30, 95%CI: 1.72-3.08; adverse outcomes: pooled OR = 3.02, 95%CI: 2.60-3.51). The short-term and long-term mortality rates of APE patients with RI were both higher than those in patients without RI. In addition, acute kidney injury(AKI) could serve as a predictive factor of poor prognosis (pooled OR = 2.75, 95%CI: 2.45-3.08), and it doubles the overall mortality rate in APE patients. However, chronic kidney disease (CKD) did not predict poor prognosis in APE patients (pooled OR = 1.94, 95%CI: 0.99-3.81), although it could slightly increase the overall mortality rate in APE patients. RI and AKI could be included in the prognosis evaluation for APE, but the impact of CKD in APE patients has yet to be determined.