Digital economy is divided into six aspects: digital infrastructure, digital industrialization, industrial digitalization, digital governance and data value. Relying on the strong compatibility ability of digitalization, it has a profound impact on the development of today’s economic society and even international trade, and is of great significance to promoting export trade. Based on the digital economy and taking Hunan province as the research object, this paper selects the ten-year series data from 2013 to 2022, measures the digital economy development index of Hunan Province through principal component analysis, and studies the influence of digital economy on the export trade competitiveness of Hunan Province. It is found that the overall development of digital economy in Hunan Province keeps growth, which needs to find new development momentum; the core industries of export trade are highly competitive, the edge industries are relatively weak, and the overall export trade competitiveness fluctuates; digital economy has a significant positive effect on the export trade competitiveness of Hunan Province. This conclusion provides theoretical basis and data support for Hunan province to transform the development momentum, drag into the development of digital economy, and enhance the competitiveness of export trade.