As the degradation of desert steppes has increased, studying the plant litter added to the soil has become important. Desert steppes under different land utilization were selected to investigate the effects of adding plant litter on soil organic carbon (SOC) mineralization. The results indicated that litter significantly increased the rate and cumulative mineralization of the soil. The SOC mineralization in the mowing and fenccing areas with added Artemisia frigida litter were the highest, 3513.25 and 2867.55 mg·kg^-1, respectively. The cumulative mineralization of SOC in the grazing area treated with mixed litter was the highest at 3276.4 mg·kg^-1. The priming effects of the four types of litter addition treatments on a desert steppe soil were grazing area>fencing area>mowing area. The cumulative mineralization data for each soil sample were individually fitted using a first-order kinetic model. Cumulative mineralization was significantly and positively correlated with soil total potassium, litter carbon, and nitrogen (P<0.001), and positively correlated with litter C/N, litter phosphorus, and soil total nitrogen (P<0.01). In summary, common plant litter addition enhanced the organic carbon mineralization level of a desert steppe soil under three land utilization regimes to various degrees.