This study investigates the return on investment (ROI) of building energy management system (BEMS) through reviewing research works published from 1977 to 2017. The ROI is quantitatively evaluated by payback periods of BEMS cases. The results indicated that the BEMS payback periods decreased from 5.4 to 0.7years for commercial buildings. For compound buildings, the BEMS payback periods were shortened from 3.7 to 1.8years. For residential or office buildings, the BEMS payback periods could not be effectively shortened. Therefore, the BEMS for the commercial and compound buildings had the better energy savings and ROI. An ROI model, based on four characteristic parameters of buildings and four major BEMS technologies, is built. The calculating results indicate that the most effective technology to increase the ROI of BEMS is the scheduling control technology developed for the heating, ventilation, air-conditioning, and refrigeration system of buildings. The future development of BEMS should focus on (1) scheduling control, (2) collecting the managing information through Internet, and (3) combining the mobile communicating devices for interacting with the occupants in the building. Therefore, using BEMS would be a worthwhile choice for most commercial buildings.