Abstract: Revealing the spatiotemporal evolution patterns and driving factors of carbon metabolism in arid inland river basins is crucial for ecological environment governance, protection, and the formulation of low-carbon sustainable development policies. The influence of land use and land cover change on carbon metabolism is evaluated by using ecological network analysis in the Shiyang River Basin (SRB). The optimal parameter geographical detector model was used to quantify the impact and interactions of individual factors on carbon metabolism. The results show that: 1) During 2000–2020, the total carbon emissions in the SRB increased by 2.05 times, among which transportation and industrial land were the main contributors. The carbon balance has deteriorated modestly while the amount of carbon sequestration has only slightly increased. The net carbon flow is negative. 2) With an average mutualism index of 0.67, competition across land use types is the dominant factor in the SRB, indicating that land use and land cover changes have a negative overall impact on carbon metabolism throughout the region. 3) Vegetation type, normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), and population density are the key factors affecting carbon metabolism, and NDVI and vegetation type have the strongest synergistic effect on carbon metabolism. The complex interaction among land use and land cover change, carbon transfer, and regional carbon metabolism in arid inland river basin was discussed in this study. Its findings and approach provide insights and recommendations for climate change response and low-carbon development.