Trapped by the lack of physical capital, human capital and social capital, the information disadvantage and social relationship disadvantage of low-income families hinder their income growth. The mobile Internet has powerful information collection and dissemination functions and social functions, and its sharing, inclusiveness and low-cost use provide an effective way to reduce the information disadvantage and social relationship disadvantage of low-income families. Therefore, the use of mobile internet by low-income households contributes to their income growth. However, in reality, there is still a lack of empirical evidence on whether the use of mobile Internet by low-income households can significantly increase their household income. This paper believes that low-income families can obtain employment and entrepreneurship information, learn skills and knowledge, and expand social relations at a low cost through the mobile Internet. At the same time, the development of the Internet itself has also spawned more forms and opportunities for employment and entrepreneurship. Therefore, the use of mobile Internet can increase the income level of low-income families through promoting employment and entrepreneurship, improving social networks, and other paths. The main source of income growth for low-income households comes from more and higher-quality participation in paid economic activities by household members. Therefore, the income growth effect of the use of mobile Internet in low-income families is mainly reflected in the increase in wages and operating income brought about by promoting employment and entrepreneurship. Meanwhile, the threshold constraints of starting a business make the income growth of low-income families more dependent on the improvement of family members’ employment. Accordingly, promoting employment has become the main way to use mobile Internet to help low-income households increase their income. Data from the China Family Panel Studies (CFPS) in 2016 and 2018 were used for empirical tests. The analysis results show that the use of mobile Internet significantly promotes the income growth of low-income families, in which the growth effect of wage and business income is significant, but the growth effect of property and transfer income is not significant. The use of mobile Internet can improve the income level of low-income families by promoting employment and entrepreneurship and improving social networks, among which employment has the strongest mediating effect, followed by entrepreneurship, and social network is the weakest. Moreover, the use of mobile Internet is not effective in improving the social network of low-income families. Compared with the existing literature, this paper discusses the income growth effect of low-income households using mobile Internet and the path of employment, entrepreneurship, and social relations, expands and deepens the research on the economic effect of Internet development and the income increase path for low-income households, and also provides empirical evidence that the use of mobile Internet can promote the income growth of low-income households. This study shows that the use of mobile Internet can significantly improve the income level of low-income families by promoting employment and entrepreneurship, improving social networks, and other ways. To further leverage the effect of mobile Internet use on the income of low-income households, it is necessary to strengthen the construction of mobile Internet infrastructure to increase the Internet penetration rate of low-income groups, and constantly optimize the information collection and communication function, learning function and social function of mobile Internet to improve the breadth and depth of Internet use of low-income families.