Structural components of varying thickness draw increasing attention these days due to economy and light-weight considerations. In view of the absence of research in vibration analysis of viscoelastic plate with varying thickness, this study devotes to investigate the dynamic behaviors of axially moving viscoelastic plate with varying thickness. Based on the thin plate theory and the two-dimensional viscoelastic differential constitutive relation, the differential equation of motion of the axially moving viscoelastic rectangular plate is derived, the plate constituted by Kelvin-Voigt model has linearly varying thickness in the y-direction. The dimensionless complex frequencies of axially moving viscoelastic plate with four edges simply supported are calculated by the differential quadrature method, curves of real parts and imaginary parts of the first three-order dimensionless complex frequencies versus dimensionless moving speed are obtained, the effects of the aspect ratio, thickness ratio, the dimensionless moving speed and delay time on the dynamic behaviors of the axially moving viscoelastic rectangular plate with varying thickness are analyzed. When other parameters keep constant, with the decrease of thickness ratio, the real parts of the first three-order natural frequencies decrease, and the critical divergence speeds of various modes decrease too, moreover, whether the delay time is large or small, the frequencies are all complex numbers. Structural components of varying thickness draw increasing attention these days due to economy and light-weight considerations. In view of the absence of research in vibration analysis of viscoelastic plate with varying thickness, this study devotes to investigate the dynamic behaviors of axial moving viscoelastic plate with varying thickness. Based on the thin plate theory and the two-dimensional viscoelastic differential constitutive relation, the differential equation of motion of the axially moving viscoelastic rectangular plate is derived, the plate constituted by Kelvin-Voigt model has linearly varying thickness in the y- The dimensionless complex frequencies of axial moving viscoelastic plate with four edges simply supported are calculated by the differential quadrature method, curves of real parts and imaginary parts of the first three-order dimensionless complex frequencies versus dimensionless moving speed are obtained, the effects of the aspect ratio, thickness ratio, the dimensionless moving speed and delay time on the dynamic behaviors of the axial moving viscoelastic rectangular plate with varying thickness are, the real part of the dynamic behaviors of the axial moving viscoelastic rectangular plate with varying thickness are decrease, and the critical divergence speeds of various modes decrease too, moreover, whether the delay time is large or small, the frequencies are all complex numbers.