The marine environment (sea water, marine atmosphere, and sea mud) is a naturally corrosive environment with extremely harsh conditions. Steel structures, such as shipping and offshore engineering, which have been used in the marine environment for a long time, are prone to corrosion. Organic corrosion inhibitors have the advantages of excellent design ability of molecular structure, high corrosion inhibition efficiency, and long actuation duration, which can effectively prevent or slow down the corrosion of metals. Therefore, adding an organic corrosion inhibitor to marine anti-corrosion coatings is an effective strategy to improve corrosion resistance. Based on the latest research status at home and abroad, this review summarized the characteristics of organic small molecule corrosion inhibitors and polymer corrosion inhibitors and their applications in marine anti-corrosion coatings, including the molecular structure and performance influencing factors of various organic corrosion inhibitors, analyzing the characteristics and mechanism of organic corrosion inhibitors, and discussing the application of organic corrosion inhibitors in anti-corrosion coatings by different fortification technology. Finally, the future development of organic corrosion inhibitors is prospective.