The aim of this meta-analysis was to investigate the rs1799794 and rs1799796 polymorphisms of X-ray repair cross-complementing group 3 (XRCC3) in relation to breast cancer susceptibility.PubMed, Embase, the Cochrane Library, Web of Science, and Scopus were searched for eligible studies published until June 24, 2019. All analyses were carried out using Stata 14.0 software. Subgroup analyses were performed according to cancer types, ethnicity, source of controls, and method.Our meta-analysis included articles reporting 13 studies of SNP rs1799794 and seven articles reporting 10 studies of SNP rs1799796. Overall, significant associations were observed between the XRCC3 rs1799794 polymorphism and breast cancer risk in the dominant model and heterozygote model (GG + AG vs. AA: odds ratio [OR] =1.06, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.00-1.11, P = 0.037, I2 = 47%; AG vs. AA: OR = 1.08, 95% CI: 1.02-1.13, P = 0.006, I2 = 42.3%) and between the XRCC3 rs1799796 polymorphism and breast cancer risk in the homozygote model (GG vs. AA: OR = 0.91, 95% CI: 0.84-0.99, P = 0.021, I2 = 33.3%).The results of this meta-analysis suggest that the variant G allele of the XRCC3 rs1799794 polymorphism is a low-penetrant risk factor for developing breast cancer, whereas the variant G allele of the XRCC3 rs1799796 polymorphism has a protective effect against breast cancer development.