Horizontal ecological compensation mechanism provides solutions for cross-domain protection of ecological environment, and the key to its implementation depends on the establishment of a suitable incentive mechanism of economic benefits to influence the conservation behavior of each interest body. In this paper, a static game model with perfect information is used to characterize the game strategies of different stakeholders in ecological compensation in the Yellow River basin and the long-term steady-state equilibrium of their benefit effects. A binary disorderly logit regression model is used to empirically study the regional benefit effects generated by the horizontal ecological compensation mechanism. The level of urban economic development and ecological environment management significantly affects the profitability of horizontal ecological compensation mechanisms in the Yellow River basin. The heterogeneity analysis find that the profitability of the horizontal ecological compensation mechanism in the Yellow River basin is stronger in the upstream central and western regions, which are more likely to produce better ecological compensation benefits as recipients of compensation funds. Governments in the Yellow River Basin should strengthen cross-regional cooperation, continuously improve the capacity building and modernization of ecological and environmental governance in the basin, and provide solid institutional guarantees for environmental pollution management in China.