<p>MicroRNAs are a subtype of small non coding RNAs, 22–24 nucleotides long and play a pivotal role in the gene expression at the post transcriptional level. miRNAs are known to get dysregulated in many diseases including cancers, making miRNAs a promising target for cancer therapy. One such microRNA miR-23b, plays a very crucial role in different cancers like breast cancer, lung cancer, gastric cancer, cervical cancer, osteosarcoma, etc. The two mature forms of miR-23b i.e., miR-23b-3p and miR-23b-5p has different expression pattern that varies from cancer to cancer. This review focuses on the role of miR-23b in cervical cancer (CC) and modulation of the various oncogenic pathways viz., cell cycle, proliferation, metastasis, cell death, etc. miR-23b is reported to get downregulated in CC. CC being the 4th most highly diagnosed cancer and cancer related female mortality across the globe. CC is mainly caused due to the human papilloma virus, especially HPV 16 and 18 variants. The HPV16 E6 protein upon integration into human genome causes the upregulation of DNA methyltransferase enzyme (DNMT1) which further methylates miR-23b and causes its downregulation in CC. It further affects the regulation of many downstream genes like c-MET, ZEB1, SIX 1, CDH1, ALDH1, etc. eventually altering the cellular proliferation, metastasis, tumorigenesis and cellular resistance to various cancer therapies. Thus miR-23b is a very promising biomarker for CC treatment.</p> Graphical abstract