The invention relates to a method for manufacturing an electrothermal drive microstructure, belonging to the technical field of micro-manufacturing, and relating to a method for manufacturing metal devices on a nonmetal substrate. The method comprises the following steps of: obtaining a conductor layer on an insulating substrate through a peeling process; selecting a metal material with less binding force with an electroforming microstructure as the substrate; manufacturing a three-dimensional electrothermal drive cantilever microstructure through SU-8 photoresist ultraviolet lithography twice, the preparation of a copper seed layer and micro-electroforming of nickel twice on a stainless steel substrate by adopting a sacrificial layer technology; and connecting the cantilever structure and the conductor layer by adopting a conducting resin adhesion method. The invention has the advantages of high structural strength, firm combination among layers, little internal stress of the micro-electroforming layer, good verticality of the side wall of the microstructure, high size precision and the like. An electrothermal drivie cantilever microstructure manufactured by utilizing the method has the height reaching hundreds of micrometers, and thereby the requirement of large-displacement movement can be satisfied.