The season began with the Nordic Opening stage event on 27–29 November 2020 in Ruka, Finland and was planned to conclude with the World Cup Finals on 19–21 March 2021 in Beijing, China.

[1] However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, FIS announced on 4 December 2020 that all events in China, including the Cross-Country World Cup final were cancelled.

The pandemic also reduced participation, after the opening in Ruka the Norwegian, Swedish and Finnish teams announced that they would not compete in Davos and Dresden as they felt that they could not guarantee a safe environment.

The table shows the number of points won in the 2020/21 Cross-Country Skiing World Cup for men and women.

Team Sprint and Relay used to count only for Nations Cup but from this season they were also included in individual standings.