As an important starting point for a new round of information industry revolution, the digital economy has a huge impact on high-quality development. Coupling coordination degree and obstacle degree model are used to study the coupling coordination relationship and obstacle factors between digital economy and high-quality development in the Yellow River Basin from 2011 to 2020. The results show that digital economy and high-quality development in the Yellow River Basin are at a high level of coupling stage, and the coupling coordination degree in the downstream region is higher than that in the middle and upper reaches. Indicators such as green ecology and digital industry scale restrict the coordinated development of the two systems. Regions should play the role of digital economy to promote the coordinated development of digital economy and high quality.