The work aims to study a kind of antimicrobial paper coated with essential oils and its effect on the preservation of strawberry. Essential oils with strong antimicrobial activity against 4 kinds of microorganisms such as Botrytis cinerea were screened out from 5 kinds of natural plant essential oils such as Thymus vulgaris L., and their components were identified by GC-MS. The screened essential oils were coated on paper combined with polyvinyl alcohol to prepare antimicrobial paper. The antimicrobial activity of antimicrobial paper against tested microorganisms was tested by the method of fumigation, and the effect of the antimicrobial paper on the preservation of strawberry was studied. The results showed that the antimicrobial activity of Thymus vulgaris L. essential oil and Ocimum gratissimum L. essential oil against the 4 kinds of tested microorganisms was the strongest. The main components of Thymus vulgaris L. essential oil were thymol and carvacrol, and their peak area percentages in GC were 77.04% and 16.46%, respectively. The main components of the essential oil of Ocimum gratissimum L. were eugenol and β-caryophyllene, and their peak area percentages in GC were 77.95% and 18.80%, respectively. The antimicrobial paper with essential oil concentration of 4% (volume fraction, double coating, the same below) presented the strongest antimicrobial activity, followed by antimicrobial paper with essential oil concentration of 3%. Antimicrobial paper with essential oil concentration of 3% presented the best effect on maintaining strawberry sensory quality, inhibiting strawberry decay and deferring the increase of the total number of colonies, which was significantly better than the antimicrobial paper with essential oil concentration of 4%, 2% and 1% respectively and the base paper (P<0.05). The effect of antimicrobial paper on total soluble solids of strawberry was not obvious. In conclusion, the antimicrobial paper coated with 3% (volume fraction) Thymus vulgaris L.-Ocimum gratissimum L. essential oil has better effect on the preservation of strawberry.