Objective To investigate the efficacy of cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) for chronic subjective tinnitus through a meta-analysis. Methods A comprehensive search was conducted for randomized controlled trials on CBT for chronic subjective tinnitus, including studies with tinnitus duration ≥3 months and excluding objective tinnitus. The intervention group received either CBT alone or in combination with other treatments, while the control group did not receive CBT. Outcome measures such as THI, TAQ, ISI, HADS, TQ and SDS were extracted for meta-analysis using Revman 5.4 software. Results A total of 16 articles with 19 data sets were included for meta-analysis. After analyzing the extracted data from each study for various outcome measures, the meta-analysis was performed on treatment efficacy, tinnitus severity, sleep quality, and anxiety and depression levels. The overall effective rate of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) was 2.37 times that of the control group. For the tinnitus severity assessment scales THI, TQ, and mini-TQ, the results were inconsistent, indicating that CBT might improve symptoms or had no significant effect. Regarding the evaluation of insomnia severity using the ISI scale and the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), CBT could lead to improvements in these conditions. When assessing patients' adverse psychological conditions through the HADS, as well as anxiety through the TAQ and SAS scales, and depression through the SDS scale, the results suggested that CBT might yield differentiated outcomes. Conclusion Cognitive behavioral therapy has a significant and statistically significant therapeutic effect on tinnitus, improving tinnitus symptoms and sleep quality in patients. However, the results for anxiety and depression measures are contradictory across different scales