The modern gas turbines are constantly pursuing the development trend of high heat insulation and long service life, making the operating temperature of turbine blade continuously rising. Thermal barrier coatings (TBCs) have high temperature resistance and high heat insulation to protect metal alloy substrates. The ceramic topcoat layer is typically composed of yttria-stabilized zirconia (YSZ) material. However, the spallation failure of YSZ is easy to occur during high-temperature service.Gd2Zr2O7(GZO) is one of the candidate materials for the new generation of thermal barrier coatings，due to its low thermal conductivity and phase stability at high temperatures. The porous structure of ceramic coatings inevitably undergoes sintering and densification during high-temperature service, the hardness and elastic modulus of coating were decreased.Adjusting the spraying distance influence both the temperature and velocity of particles, thereby influencing the microstructure of the porous coating. In this work, three kinds of Gd2Zr2O7 (GZO) coatings deposited at different spraying distances were prepared by atmospheric plasma spraying (APS). The as-deposited coatings were thermal exposure to 1 300 ℃ for different hours. The phase structure, microstructure and mechanical properties of the obtained coatings were characterized. The relationships of pore structure and mechanical properties of GZO coatings were revealed during high temperature thermal exposure.