Carbon nanotubes and organic compounds with extensive delocalized pi-electron system such as phthalocyanine and its derivatives are attracted much attention as potential optical limiting materials. In this article, the optical limiting properties of carbon nanotubes, phthalocyanine as well as its derivatives and modifying approaches to improve their optical limiting performance are reviewed. In addition, the optical limiting properties exhibited by the nanohybrids obtained from the combination between carbon nanotubes and phthalocyanine or its derivatives are also introduced.