The purpose of this paper was to study the differences in metabolic activities of coalbed microbial communities in different coal mining areas, and to find the best carbon source that can stimulate the microbial activity of coal seams. For the first time, Biolog-ECO microplate technology under anaerobic conditions was used to reveal the diversity of microbial metabolic functions in three typical coal mining areas in China (Sihe Mine abbreviated as SH, Zhangbei Mine as ZB, Guier Mine as GE). The results showed that the average well color development of Zhangbei mine samples on the 15th day was 0.65 ±0.035, which was significantly higher than that of the other two mines, indicating that the metabolic activity of microorganisms was the highest, and the diversity index (Shannon index, McIntosh index, Simpson index) of Zhangbei mine samples was relatively high. Principal component analysis found that coalbed microbial communities prefer to use L-alanine, 4-hydroxybenzoic acid, 2-hydroxybenzoic acid, phenylethylamine when providing carbon source for metabolism. These carbon sources may serve as exogenous nutrients to accelerate methane metabolism of in situ microorganisms in coal seams, and enable the rapid production of biogenic coal-bed methane.