Formation damage can cause disappointing production or injection of oil and gas well. Although formation damage can occur at any time, drilling-induced formation damage often bears the brunt of the blame since it is the first operation that disturbs the reservoir's equilibrium. Despite the availability of prevention methods, conventional overbalanced drilling using colloid-containing drilling fluid is still favourable for many reasons, including primary well control mechanism and wellbore stability. This article presents a comprehensive review of the status of research on the use of nanoparticles in drilling fluid in the aspect of filtration and formation damage, highlighting the experimental techniques, the influence of different critical variables on particle bridging and permeability alteration, recent advances, technical challenges, and directions for future works. Results from previous studies showed that several critical parameters such as size, concentration, type, and surface properties of nanoparticles play important role in controlling drilling fluid filtration. In general, engineering drilling fluid with nanoparticles would improve the drilling fluid filtration with exception of several nanoparticle types such as copper, aluminium, and zinc. Despite that, the optimum size and concentration have yet to be found which leads to many discrepancies. A review of the effect of surface properties suggests a strong relationship between surface charges and the filtration properties of drilling fluid. However, there is still a lack of studies on the impact of solid invasion and retention in porous media. In a nutshell, the potential of nanoparticles as filtration control material requires more structured studies with a focus on the surface properties as well as its interaction with porous media to further understand their impact on formation damage. © 2022 Elsevier B.V.