Aims: Soil comprises diverse carbon (C) pools undergoing various decomposition stages, each characterized by distinct stability and turnover rates. The response of these C pools to warming with the input of plant residues remains unclear.Methods: We conducted a 90-day incubation study at 15 °C and 25 °C, introducing 13C-labeled cellulose into soils from old-field (OF), bare-fallow (BF), and bare-fallow plus 815-day pre-incubation (BF+) representing different stages of soil organic matter decomposition.Results: We estimated the priming effects (PE) of cellulose and found that PE were 30.6%, 59.3%, and 63.0% at 15 °C, and 20.8%, 35.3%, and 39.8% at 25 °C for OF, BF, and BF + soils, respectively. Net C balance was higher in BF and BF + soils than in OF soil by 0.6 − 2.8 mg C g−1 SOC at 15 °C and 1.8 − 3.8 mg C g−1 SOC at 25 °C. This indicated both PE and net C balance declined with warming regardless of soil C pool stability, but much greater in soil C pools at a slower decomposition stage.Conclusions: Overall, this study underscores warming can uniformly decrease soil C sequestration potential although the distinct priming effects of the soil C pools at different decomposition stages.