<p>Although there has been a large body of studies examining the determinants of urban settlement intentions of rural-to-urban migrants, little attention has been concentrated on the role of technological advances, particularly digital technologies. Drawing on nationally representative data and employing a difference-in-differences (DID) method, we investigate the impact of China’s recent digital economy development on the urban settlement intentions of rural-to-urban migrants. We find that the development of the digital economy has a significant positive impact on the urban settlement intentions of rural-to-urban migrants. This result is robust to several sensitivity tests of the empirical specification. Heterogeneity analyses demonstrate that this positive effect is more pronounced for the new-generation and highly educated rural-to-urban migrants. Further analysis indicates that the mechanisms underlying the increased urban settlement intentions include the accumulated human capital, the improved quality of the environment and the relaxation of <i>hukou</i> qualifications.</p>