A consensus about the fire-related soil carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) impacts that determine soil health and ecosystem services at the global scale remains elusive. Here, we conducted a global meta-analysis of 3173 observations with 1444, 1334, 228 and 167 observations for soil C, N, pyrogenic C (PyC) and the percent of PyC to total organic C (PyC/TOC) from 296 field studies. The results showed that fire significantly decreased soil C (−15.2%) and N (−14.6%) but increased soil PyC (40.6%) and PyC/TOC (30.3%) post-fire. Stronger negative fire impacts on soil C and N were found in tropical and temperate climates than in Mediterranean and subtropical climates; stronger effects were found in forest ecosystems than in non-forest ecosystems. Wildfire and high-severity fire led to greater soil C and N losses than prescribed and low-severity fires, respectively, while they promoted greater increases in soil PyC and PyC/TOC than prescribed and low-severity fires, respectively. However, soil C and N recovered to control levels approximately 10 years after fire, which is a shorter period than previously determined. These results suggest that fire-induced PyC production should be accounted for in the C budget under global change. Our results will improve our knowledge of the spatiotemporal variability of fire effects on soil C and N storage and have implications for fire management and ecosystem recovery.