Corporate digital transformation and green transformation are the key paths to realizing China's high-quality development, and exploring how corporate digital transformation affects green innovation models holds both significant theoretical value and pragmatic enlightenment. By taking the A-share listed companies in China from 2002 to 2021 as research samples, this paper distinguishes between energy conservation and environmental protection green innovation models based on the IPC Green Inventory and the content of green innovation. This paper empirically examines the influence of corporate digital transformation on the green innovation model selection and its mechanism. The study finds that corporate digital transformation strongly motivates enterprises to select green innovation model, a role that stems from the utilization of digital underlying technologies. The research and development investment of digital greenization plays a mediating role in this process. Market competition, informal environmental regulations and government innovation subsidies can moderate enterprises’ strategies for selecting green innovation models. Further heterogeneity analysis reveals that digital transformation drives corporate selection of energy-saving green innovation to a greater extent in industries that have a greater need for green transformation, such as the manufacturing industry. The results of this paper identify the effect of corporate digital transformation on green innovation model selection at the theoretical level and provide important insights into the coordinated development of Chinese corporate digitalization and greenization at the practical level.