Atherosclerosis, as a chronic cardiovascular disease driven by inflammation, can lead to arterial stenosis and thrombosis, which seriously threatens human life and health. Achieving the timely monitoring of atherosclerosis is an important measure to reduce acute cardiovascular diseases. Compared with other imaging platforms, fluorescence imaging technology has the characteristics of excellent sensitivity, high spatiotemporal resolution and real-time imaging, which is very suitable for direct visualization of molecular processes and abnormalities of atherosclerosis. Recently, researchers have strived to design a variety of fluorescent probes, from single-mode fluorescent probes to fluorescent-combined dual/multimode probes, to enrich the imaging and detection of atherosclerosis. Therefore, this review aims to provide an overview of currently investigated fluorescent probes in the context of atherosclerosis, summarize relevant published studies showing applications of different types of fluorescent probes in the early-stage and other stages to detect atherosclerosis, give effective biological targets and discuss the latest progress and some limitations. Finally, some insights are provided for the development of a new generation of more accurate and efficient fluorescent probes.