Realizing comprehensive green transformation is the necessary path for high-quality and sustainable development in Qinghai Province. We constructed an indicator system for evaluating the green development in Qinghai from five dimensions: resource utilization, environmental protection, ecological protection, growth quality, and green life based on the national green development indicator system; and comprehensively used the entropy method, comprehensive index method, coupled coordination model, and obstacle degree model to evaluate the green development level of Qinghai from 1998 to 2022. The results showed four important points. (1) The green development comprehensive index of Qinghai increased gradually in the past 25 years, but there is still much room for improvement. (2) The focus of green development changed in the three evaluation stages. The focus in 1998–2004 and 2005–2011 was on improving the ecological environment, and in 2012–2022 the focus was on economic and industrial development and the improvement of residents' living standards. (3) Since 2001, the coupling degree of the five dimensions of green development has maintained a high-level coupling stage, and the coordinated development degree entered a good coordination stage in 2021. (4) The key obstacles hindering the improvement of green development level shifted from growth quality to resource utilization and ecological protection. Therefore, improving the resource utilization level is the primary task for Qinghai to achieve high-quality green development. The study provides methodological support for green development evaluation, and suggestions for directing the formulation of green development policies in Qinghai Province.