Drastic change in global climatic conditions has significantly increased the frequency of abiotic stresses, such as different temperature regimes (high, low, or freezing stress), uneven precipitation leading to flooding or drought, soil salinization, cyclones and hurricanes which pose a major challenge to the crop productivity and food security. Therefore, it becomes imperative for the global science community to engineer stress tolerance in crop plants to ensure enough food for the globe. Plant growth regulators play an important function in stress management. One putative plant hormone that aids plants in coping with biotic and abiotic stressors is salicylic acid (SA). SA also cooperates with other phytohormones, such as gibberellins, auxins, abscisic acid, jasmonic acid, ethylene, polyamines, nitric oxide, and to counter the negative effects of environmental perturbations. Moreover, SA shields plants from oxidative stress by reducing the production of reactive oxygen species in challenging circumstances. Additionally, SA stimulates gas exchange, photosynthesis, and osmolyte synthesis in plants, which counteract the damage caused by ROS. Exogenous application of SA to agricultural crops including medicinal and aromatic plants improves their abiotic stress tolerance, either individually or in combination with other phytohormones. SA can stimulate the production of secondary metabolites by controlling the expression of stress-related genes, activating or regulating several key enzymes, and balancing the ion content. The present review summarizes the various mechanisms by which SA confers abiotic stress tolerance in plants through homeostasis, signalling, and crosstalk with other phytohormones.