With the advancement of agricultural modernization, outsourcing of agricultural machinery services has become a critical pathway to improving agricultural production efficiency. Digital literacy, as a key capability for farmers to adapt to modern agricultural technologies, increasingly influences their decision-making processes. Based on data from the 2020 China Rural Revitalization Survey (CRRS), this study analyzes the impact mechanisms of digital literacy on farmers’ adoption of outsourcing agricultural machinery services and delves into its underlying pathways and inclusiveness. The findings reveal the following: firstly, digital literacy significantly enhances farmers’ adoption of outsourcing agricultural machinery services, with digital threshold and digital application exerting particularly strong effects. Secondly, digital literacy promotes farmers’ adoption of outsourcing agricultural machinery services through multiple mechanisms, including employment migration, credit constraint mitigation, and organizational improvement. Thirdly, plot size significantly suppresses the positive impact of digital literacy on farmers’ adoption of outsourcing agricultural machinery services, as the effect diminishes with increasing plot size. Fourthly, digital literacy significantly facilitates the adoption of outsourcing agricultural machinery services in labor-intensive operations but shows no significant impact on technology-intensive operations. Based on these findings, the government should prioritize implementing a “digital application strategy”, constructing an information-sharing and collaborative digital platform, and enhancing farmers’ digital literacy and technical skills, thereby strengthening the foundation of national food security.