With the widespread and abuse of antibiotics, the drug-resistance of bacteria are becoming much stronger and harder to be conquered. Infections caused by drug-resistant bacteria have posed a serious challenge to public healthcare, which have caused tremendous deaths and excess healthcare expenditures. The development of nanotechnology paves a new way to solve this knotty problem. Among various antimicrobial nanomaterials, graphene oxide has special morphological dimensions and physicochemical properties, which allows it with diverse antimicrobial capabilities. The features of large specific surface area, good electron conductivity and abundant oxygen-containing functional groups on the surface make graphene oxide be an ideal platform for compounding with other antimicrobial materials and acting as a synergistic antimicrobial agent with other antimicrobial nanomaterials. This paper reviews the constructions of antimicrobial nanomaterials based on graphene oxide or graphene oxide-based composite, the mechanisms of antimicrobial effect and recent controversies, as well as the latest development of graphene oxide based antimicrobial composite nanomaterials. Then, we further discuss the key role of graphene oxide in different materials for synergistic antimicrobial properties, and finally provide new ideas for the development of efficient graphene oxide based antimicrobial nanomaterials.