ALT Cats Felis catus, in all their forms (domestic, free‐roaming/stray and feral), have been identified as a major global threat to biodiversity. However, the threat that cats cause to bats has not yet been assessed. We reviewed the impact of cats on bats, based on a collation of scientific literature and the IUCN Red List database, to produce a synthesis of the extent to which cats kill bats and threaten their populations. We found that 86 bat species (about 7% of the global extant tally) are killed or threatened by cats, and about one quarter of these species are listed as Near Threatened, Vulnerable, Endangered, or Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List. Pet, stray and feral cats all kill bats, and such predation has been reported in all major terrestrial habitats, natural and anthropized. We conclude that predation by cats is an under‐appreciated threat to the world’s bat species.