Attaining a win-win goal among ecological conservation and well-being development is an inevitable requirement for China's transition towards low-carbon cities. Using a dataset of China's 277 cities during 2007-2021, this paper explores the local-neighbor impacts of the Low-Carbon City Pilot (LCP) policy on ecological well-being performance (EWP) by adopting the spatial difference-in-difference (SDID) approach. Then, explaining its action mechanism from a green lifestyle perspective. The results show that: (1) the quantity of sample cities with excellent EWP levels is on an upward trend, rising from 13 in 2007 to 76 in 2021, an increase of 22.75%; (2) LCP policy facilitates the growth of EWP in local cities and exerts notable spatial spillover effects, enhancing EWP in neighboring cities within 1300 km; (3) Improving residents’ green consumption awareness is an effective mechanism for LCP policy to enhance EWP of local and surrounding cities; (4) The local-neighbor effects of LCP on EWP are more significant in non-resource, government innovation-preferring and large cities. These results can offer valuable insights for policymakers in formulating environmental strategies that reconcile ecological environment with well-being growth.