The relationship between androgen receptor expression and renal cell carcinoma risk remains controversial. This study is aimed to investigate the clinical significance of androgen receptor expression in renal cell carcinoma. A computerized bibliographic search of Embase, the PubMed, and Web of Science combined with manual research between 1977 and 2017 was conducted to explore the association between androgen receptor expression and clinicopathological features of renal cell carcinoma. Data were analyzed by a meta-analysis using RevMan 5.3 analysis software. Eleven retrospective studies with 1839 renal cell carcinoma cases were finally included according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analysis guidelines. It was found that there was no significant difference between androgen receptor expression and susceptibility, pathological type, metastatic status, metastatic type (lymph or distant metastasis) and cancer-specific survival of renal cell carcinoma (P > 0.05). However, positive androgen receptor expression was demonstrated to be significantly associated with male patients, lower pathological grade, and earlier tumor stage of renal cell carcinoma (OR = 1.69, 95% CI = 1.30-2.19, P < 0.0001; OR = 2.06, 95% CI = 1.49-2.85, P < 0.0001; OR = 2.81, 95% CI = 1.30-6.12, P = 0.009; respectively). In conclusion, higher androgen receptor expression was correlated with male patients, low tumor grade and early stage of renal cell carcinoma. Based on current results, androgen receptor-inhibited target therapy for renal cell carcinoma patients may be of limited benefits and should be taken into more evaluations.