Resource-based enterprises are located at the intersection position of energy supply guarantee, raw material supply and green transformation, and competition pressure and government subsidies jointly affect their innovation input. Taking resource-based listed enterprises in Shanghai and Shenzhen A-share markets from 2014 to 2020 as the sample, the research objects are identified according to 12 types of industries including mining, washing, primary processing and energy supply. After deleting ST, missing values, zero R&D input and zero subsidy samples, 717 firm-year observations are obtained. The study adopts industry and year fixed effects to examine the influence of market competition, government subsidies and their interaction on R&D input, and groups them according to ownership structure. The results show that market competition has a positive effect on innovation of resource-based enterprises, the full-sample competition coefficient is 0.099 and significant at the 5% level; in non-state-owned enterprises, this coefficient is 0.067 and significant at the 1% level, while state-owned enterprises are not significant. The direct effect of government subsidies in the full sample is insufficient, and it shows inhibition in state-owned enterprises, but the interaction terms of competition and subsidies in state-owned enterprises and non-state-owned enterprises reach 0.613 and 1.195 respectively, indicating that subsidies are more suitable as resource buffer and signal tools under competition pressure. The study provides empirical evidence for innovation governance and precise subsidy allocation of resource-based enterprises. This paper also redraws sample, mechanism and result evidence in a graphical way to enhance the readability and recheckability of the conclusions.